Shorter Family History
Shorter Name Meaning
English:: topographic name for someone who lived by a detached or cut-off piece of land known in Middle English as a sherte shirte or shurte (Old English scerte scierte scyrte). The addition of + -er to a topographic term to form an agent noun is typical of Surrey Kent Sussex and Hampshire and may also have occurred in Berkshire and Wiltshire. The name is synonymous with atte Scherte and atte Schurte; see Short and Shortman . in Staffordshire apparently a shortened form of Shorters itself a variant of Shorthouse a nickname either for someone who wore short stockings or boots (Middle English short ‘short’ + hose ‘stocking boot’) or for someone with a short neck (Middle English short + hals ‘neck’; see Shortell ).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022