Family name origins & meanings
- English : from an agent derivative of Middle English (e)spi(en) ‘to watch’, hence an occupational name for a lookout or watchman, or a nickname for a nosy person.
- Scottish : variant spelling of Spear.
- German : nickname for a small person, from Middle Low German spīr ‘trifle’, ‘small piece’.
- German : habitational name from any of several places named Spier, notably the city in the Palatinate, now spelled Speyer (see Speyer, Spiering).
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : variant of Spiro.