Family name origins & meanings
- English (Norfolk) : occupational name from Middle English pointer ‘point maker’, an agent derivative of point, a term denoting a lace or cord used to fasten together doublet and hose (Old French pointe ‘point’, ‘sharp end’). Reaney suggests that in some cases Pointer may have been an occupational name for a tiler or slater whose job was to point the tiles, i.e. render them with mortar where they overlapped.
- Possibly an altered form of German Pointner, a variant of Bainter.