Family name origins & meanings
- Turkish : occupational name from asker ‘soldier’, from Arabic ‛askarī. This name is also found in Iran and the Indian subcontinent.
- Arabic : variant of Asghar.
- Greek : shortened form of Askeris, from Turkish asker ‘soldier’, or from Askeridis or Askeropoulos, patronymics from this word. Compare Laskaris.
- Norwegian and Swedish : habitational name from any of several farmsteads named Asker, in particular those near Oslo, from an inflected form of ask ‘ash tree’.
- English (Norfolk) : topographic name for someone who lived by an ash tree, Middle English ask (from Old Norse asker) + the habitational suffix -er.
- English : from Middle English asker(e) ‘collector of tolls or revenues’ or (in a legal context) ‘plaintiff’ or ‘prosecutor’ (an agent derivative of Middle English aske(n) ‘to ask’, ‘to demand’).