Explore the Family Name Clerc

The meaning of Clerc

French: occupational or status name for a member of a minor religious order or for a scholar, Old French clerc, from Late Latin clericus, from Greek klērikos, a derivative of klēros ‘inheritance, legacy’, with reference to the priestly tribe of Levites (see Levy) ‘whose inheritance was the Lord’. In medieval Christian Europe, clergy in minor orders were permitted to marry and so found families; thus the surname could become established. In the Middle Ages it was virtually only members of religious orders who learned to read and write, so that the term clerc later came to denote any literate man, a scholar (hence its modern meaning ‘scribe, secretary’ or ‘clerk’). Compare Leclerc. Some characteristic forenames: French Alain, Odette, Sebastien, Serge.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.