Family name origins & meanings
- English : habitational name from the city of Worcester, named from Old English ceaster ‘Roman fort or walled city’ (Latin castra ‘legionary camp’) + a British tribal name of uncertain origin.
- Rev. William Worcester emigrated from England and settled in Salisbury, MA, before 1638. He had many prominent descendants, including Noah Worcester (b. 1758) and Samuel Worcester (b. 1770), both NH Congregational clergymen, and Joseph Emerson Worcester (1784–1865), a noted lexicographer, geographer, and historian.