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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : from an agent derivative of Middle English purse (see Purse), hence an occupational name for someone who made or sold purses and bags, or for an official in charge of expenditure.
  • Scottish : Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Sparain ‘son of the purse’, traditionally born by purse-bearers to the Lords of the Isles.

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