Family name origins & meanings
- English : occupational name for the servant of a man called Wa(l)ter (see Water 1).
- English and Dutch : occupational name for a boatman or a water carrier, or a topographic name for someone who lived by a stretch of water (see Water 2).
- Americanized form of German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) Wasserman(n), an occupational name for a water-carrier. Compare 2 above.
- Robert Waterman emigrated from England to Marshfield, MA, in 1636.