Look up another surname
The messer Surname

messer Name Meaning and History

  1. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): metonymic occupational name for a cutler, from Middle High German mezzer ‘knife’, from Old High German mezzirahs, mezzisahs, a compound of maz ‘food’, ‘meat’ + sahs ‘knife’, ‘sword’. The Jewish name is from German Messer ‘knife’ or Yiddish meser.
  2. German: occupational name for an official in charge of measuring the dues paid in kind by tenants, from an agent derivative of Middle High German mezzen ‘to measure’.
  3. English and Scottish: occupational name for someone who kept watch over harvested crops, Middle English, Older Scots mess(i)er, from Old French messier (see Messier).

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
Learn the meaning and history of your first name
Share this page with friends and family

14–Day Free Trial

Download the Getting Started guide
It's FREE with registration!

messer Family Facts

Are you a Facebook user? Add messer family facts to your Facebook profile.
Distribution of messer Families in the US in 1920
Number of messer families
 85-168
 29-84
 1-28
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

Click on a state to view messer census records

Year

How is this helpful?

  • You can decide where (in which states) to start searching for messer records.
  • You can see how messer families moved over time by selecting different Census years.

What do I do next?

The information for this map came from Ancestry.com’s US Federal Census Collection.
  • Census records can tell you little-known facts about your ancestors such as birthplace, residence and occupation.
  • Click here to search messer census records.

Search for messer records

Name

Birth

+/-
e.g. Chicago, Illinois, USA

Death

+/-
e.g. Chicago, Illinois, USA
Give priority to    

More resources for your messer family history

Start your FREE family tree. Who will you discover?

A family tree is the easiest way to start discovering your family history. To begin, just enter whatever you know and we'll use that to try and find more information for you.

Begin your family tree with your name:

Learn more about family trees.

The messer name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the messer family name as far back in history as possible.

Member Connections

More Tools and Resources