BUCKMASTER
The surname Buckmaster is of English origin and is classically regarded as an occupational name.
Its derivation is normally traced to the Old English words bucca, meaning a male deer, and mæstere, meaning master or keeper, indicating that the original bearer was a master or keeper of male deer. This association suggests that the earliest persons bearing the name were involved in deer hunting or in the management of deer parks.
Alternate evidence, however, links the surname to the locational name Buckminster, a place situated in Leicestershire that was recorded as Bucheminstre in the Domesday Book of 1086. The place-name is thought to have arisen from the Old English pre‑seventeenth-century personal name Bucca (a he‑goat) combined with mynster, a monastery or church derived from Latin monasterium. As such, it has been suggested that Buckmaster may also have been a variant so associated with a master of goats, though this interpretation is less widely accepted.
Historical documentary evidence for the surname commences in the late twelfth century. A record in the Pipe Rolls of Leicestershire, dated 1180, mentions Adam de Bucemenistre. Subsequent references in the Writs of Parliament include Simon de Bokminstre in 1295, while the Book of Fees of Lincolnshire c. 1307 records Roger de Bukeministre. In the sixteenth century, William Buckmaster (d. 1545) served as Vice‑chancellor of Cambridge University and is noted for carrying the university’s reply to King Henry V’s court in 1530 regarding the king’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon.
In more recent history, a man identified as John Buckmuster (aged 20) appears among the early settlers of Virginia in 1620, having arrived aboard the vessel known as the Hopwell. This later migration illustrates the spread of the family name beyond England to the New World.
In sum, the surname Buckmaster possesses a firmly established English provenance, with its earliest references firmly anchored in the medieval period and its meaning clearly linked to the management of deer or, possibly, goats, depending on the linguistic strand of the toponymic source.
Typical given names associated with the Buckmaster surname
Male
- Adam
- Adrian
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Simon
- Stephen
Female
- Deborah
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Jade
- Margaret
- Michelle
- Nicola
- Patricia
- Rachel
- Samantha
- Sara
- Sarah
- Susan
- Wendy
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Buckmaster in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 750 people named Buckmaster in the UK. That makes it roughly the 9,215th most common surname in Britain. Around 12 in a million people in Britain are named Buckmaster.
Surname type: Occupational name
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Buckmaster
- Paul Buckmaster - Musician (1946 to 2017)
- Maurice Buckmaster - SOE officer (1902 to 1992)
- Stanley Buckmaster, 1st Viscount Buckmaster - Politician (1861 to 1934)
- Walter Buckmaster - Polo player (1872 to 1942)
- Martin Buckmaster, 3rd Viscount Buckmaster - Diplomat (1921 to 2007)
- Simon Buckmaster - Motorcycle racer
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.