Sayer

Boy name variations

Family name origins & meanings

• English : from the Middle English personal name Saher or Seir. This is probably a Norman introduction of the Continental Germanic personal name Sigiheri, composed of the elements sigi ‘victory’ + heri ‘army’. However, it could also represent a Middle English survival of an unrecorded Old English name, Sǣhere, composed of the elements sǣ ‘sea’ + here ‘army’.
• English : occupational name, from Middle English saghier (see Sawyer) or Old French seieor.
• English : occupational name for a professional reciter, from an agent derivative of Middle English say(en), sey(en) ‘to say’.
• English : from a reduced form of Middle English assayer, an agent derivative of assay ‘trial’, ‘test’, Old French essay (from Late Latin exagium, a derivative of exagmināre ‘to weigh’), hence an occupational name for an assayer of metals or a taster of food.
• English : occupational name for a maker or seller of say, a type of cloth, from Middle English say + the agent suffix -er. See also Say.
• Welsh : occupational name from Welsh saer ‘carpenter’ or from saer maen ‘stonecutter’, i.e. mason.
• French : occupational name for a reaper or mower, from an agent derivative of Old French seer ‘to cut’ (Latin secare).
• Dutch : occupational name for a weaver of serge, from an agent derivative of saai ‘serge’.
• Dutch : occupational name from zaaier ‘sower’.