Family name origins & meanings
- German and Dutch : from Middle High German, Middle Dutch sper ‘spear’, hence a nickname for a tall, thin person, or else for a skilled user of the hunting spear. In part it may also have been a metonymic occupational name for a maker of spears.
- German : nickname for someone thought to resemble a sparrow, Middle High German spar(e) ‘sparrow’.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : variant of Speyer.
- Northern Irish : variant spelling of Speir.