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The priest Surname

priest Name Meaning and History

English (mainly West Midlands): from Middle English pr(i)est ‘minister of the Church’ (Old English preost, from Latin presbyter, Greek presbyteros ‘elder’, ‘counselor’, comparative of presbys ‘old man’), used as a nickname, either for someone with a pious manner or possibly for someone who had played the part of a priest in a pageant. It may also have been an occupational name for someone in the service of a priest, and occasionally it may have been used to denote someone suspected of being the son of a priest.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The priest name in History

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

priest Family Facts

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Distribution of priest Families in the US in 1920
Number of priest families
 107-211
 36-106		 1-35
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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The information for this map came from Ancestry.com’s US Federal Census Collection.
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