FILMER
Filmer is an English surname that has been borne by individuals for many centuries. Its earliest attestations appear in documents from the late sixteenth century in London, and it remains in use throughout the British Isles today.
The name is classically understood as an occupational or topographic designation. In the Middle English period, the word film or filmer described a person who made or worked with films or membranes. A filmer might have been a lay person engaged in the production of cloth or other thin materials. Alternatively, the surname could have referred to a person living near a natural feature that resembled a film or membrane, such as a veil of mist over a valley or a stretch of water that appeared thin and translucent.
Another tradition traces Filmer back to the Norman personal name Filimor, introduced into England after the Invasion of 1066. The element fil-u is Germanic for “very” and meri or mari means “famous”, giving the full meaning of “very famous”. The name was adapted into English speech and writing over time, forming several variants.
These variants include Phillimore, Fellimore, Philymore, Philmore and Fillmar. All may be found in parish registers and civil documents across London and the surrounding counties, and most modern bearers of the name record their ancestry under one of these spellings.
Documented evidence of the surname appears in a number of London gazettes. The marriage of Robert Filmer and Frances Chester was recorded on 5 March 1564 at St. Dunstan in the East. In 1654 Bastian Filmer was joined in wedlock to Jane Wood at Clerkenwell. The earliest surviving spelling attributed to the family is that of Joan Filmore, whose marriage to John Gobin was entered on 27 August 1598 in the registers of St. Lawrence Jewry and St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street, London, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Contemporary use of the surname is largely confined to the United Kingdom, although emigrants have carried the name abroad. The modern spelling Filmer is the most common, yet the historical diversity of its forms reflects the rich linguistic and social evolution that has shaped English family names over the centuries.
Typical given names associated with the Filmer surname
Male
- Anthony
- Charles
- Christopher
- David
- James
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Abigail
- Amanda
- Angela
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Jane
- Joan
- Karen
- Laura
- Lisa
- Louise
- Melanie
- Michelle
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
- Filer
- Felmer
- Falmer
- Flimer
- Falemer
- Filber
- Fillmer
- Fillmore
- Film
- Filmore
- Flammer
- Flemmer
- Flomer
- Flumer
- Flummer
- Follmer
- Folmer
- Fullmer
- Fulmer
- Fulmore
- Philemore
- Philimore
- Phillamore
- Phillemore
- Phillimore
- Phillmore
- Philmer
- Philmore
- Valmer
- Valmori
- Valmoria
- Villamar
- Villamor
- Vollmar
- Vollmer
- Volmar
- Volmer
- Vuilleumier
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Filmer in...
Braille
⠋⠊⠇⠍⠑⠗
Morse
..-....-..--..-.
Semaphore
There are approximately 932 people named Filmer in the UK. That makes it roughly the 7,782nd most common surname in Britain. Around 14 in a million people in Britain are named Filmer.
Surname type: Occupational name
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
