Paternoster Family History
Paternoster Name Meaning
English German French Flemish Walloon Italian (Apulia and Basilicata) and Slovenian: from Latin pater noster ‘Our Father’ the opening words of the Lord's Prayer which is represented by large beads punctuating the rosary. The surname was a (metonymic) occupational name for a maker of rosaries often a shortened form of the Middle English Middle High German occupational term paternosterer. It may also have been originally a nickname for an excessively pious individual or for someone who was under a feudal obligation to say paternosters for his master as part of the service by which he held land. In England the name is sometimes due to the service by which land was held whereby a number of paternosters were said instead of a monetary payment being made.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022