Explore the Family Name Summer

The meaning of Summer

1. English: from the Middle English (Old English) personal name Sumor, Sumer, originally a nickname from Middle English sum(m)er ‘summer’, and perhaps still a nickname (compare 4 below) in the period of surname formation. The personal name is not independently recorded but in England appears in the placenames Somersall (Derbyshire) and Somersham (Suffolk and Cambridgeshire). 2. English: occupational name from Middle English somer, somour, perhaps a shortened form of sommerer, somerour ‘packhorse man, carrier’, itself a derivative of Middle English somer (Old French sommier) ‘beast of burden, packhorse’. Alternatively, the name may imply ‘porter, carrier’. It is possible that somer and somour are derivatives of Middle English som(m)e, sum(m)e ‘weight’, derived from Old French somme, some ‘weight, burden’. Compare Middle English seme, some (Old English sēam, sēom) ‘load, burden, weight’. This surname is widely recorded across medieval England but the absence of any Middle English examples with the definite article and of any relevant contextual evidence makes an occupational sense difficult to confirm. However, the Middle English surname Somister, which appears to be occupational (see Sumpter), may imply the existence of a twin form Somer, similar to pairs like Baker and Baxter, Webber and Webster. 3. English: possibly also from a Middle English assimilated form of Sumner. 4. German: variant of Sommer, a nickname from Middle High German sumer ‘summer’. 5. German: from Middle High German sum(b)er, sum(m)er ‘woven basket’ and, by extension, a ‘drum’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a basketweaver or a drummer.

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