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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : metonymic occupational name for a cutler, from Middle High German mezzer ‘knife’, from Old High German mezzirahs, mezzisahs, a compound of maz ‘food’, ‘meat’ + sahs ‘knife’, ‘sword’. The Jewish name is from German Messer ‘knife’ or Yiddish meser.
  • German : occupational name for an official in charge of measuring the dues paid in kind by tenants, from an agent derivative of Middle High German mezzen ‘to measure’.
  • English and Scottish : occupational name for someone who kept watch over harvested crops, Middle English, Older Scots mess(i)er, from Old French messier (see Messier).

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