The turner Surname
turner Name Meaning and History
- English and Scottish: occupational name for a maker of objects of wood, metal, or bone by turning on a lathe, from Anglo-Norman French torner (Old French tornier, Latin tornarius, a derivative of tornus ‘lathe’). The surname may also derive from any of various other senses of Middle English turn, for example a turnspit, a translator or interpreter, or a tumbler.
- English: nickname for a fast runner, from Middle English turnen ‘to turn’ + ‘hare’.
- English: occupational name for an official in charge of a tournament, Old French tornei (in origin akin to 1).
- Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name from a place called Turno or Turna, in Poland and Belarus, or from the city of Tarnów (Yiddish Turne) in Poland.
- Translated or Americanized form of any of various other like-meaning or like-sounding Jewish surnames.
- South German (T(h)ürner): occupational name for a guard in a tower or a topographic name from Middle High German turn ‘tower’, or a habitational name for someone from any of various places named Thurn, for example in Austria.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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