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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : topographic name for someone who lived by a boundary (see Mark 2). It is notable that early examples of the surname tend to occur near borders, for example on the Kent-Sussex boundary.
  • English : possibly an occupational name from an agent derivative of Middle English mark(en) ‘to put a mark on’, although it is not clear what the exact nature of the work of such a ‘marker’ would be.
  • English : relatively late development of Mercer. There is one family in Clitheroe, Lancashire, who spelled their name Mercer or Marcer in the 16th century, but Marker in the 17th.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : occupational name from Yiddish marker ‘servant’.
  • German : status name for someone who lived on an area of land that was marked off from the village land or woodland, Middle High German merkære.
  • Danish : from a short form of the Germanic personal name Markward.

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