PURSE

Purse is an English surname that appears in surviving records from the late twelfth century. The name is derived from the Middle English word purs, meaning a small bag or pouch used for carrying money. In some contexts it is also linked to the Old English purs and to the Old French pors, each term describing the same object. The surname has traditionally been associated with either a person who made, sold, or carried such an object, a role that could be viewed as either a trade or a functional position within households or businesses.

Historical documents provide several early instances of the name. The first recorded spelling is that of Derewin Purs, dated to 1176 in the Pipe Rolls of Buckinghamshire. Another early entry is that of John Purse in the 12th century Hampshire Pipe Rolls. In medieval London church registers, the name appears as Elizabeth Purser (Christened 6 January 1562 at St. Mary at Hill) and as Georgius Purse, who married Margata Rumforth on 25 September 1569 at St. Andrew's, Enfield. In Scotland, the surname is sometimes considered an Anglicised form of the Gaelic Mac Sparain, meaning “son of Sparan”, a byname associated with the concept of a purse.

The Purse family was granted a coat of arms, described as a red shield bearing six silver trefoils with stalks and a gold bull on the crest. Such heraldic bearings were typical of families that had attained a certain level of social standing within the English gentry.

Geographically, the name has been concentrated in the south and east of England, notably in counties such as Wiltshire, Hampshire, Kent, Essex, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Gloucestershire. By the eighteenth century, a Purse family active in the textile industry has been documented in Wiltshire. In Scotland and Wales the surname persists, often in areas where Gaelic influences blended with English nomenclature.

In the twentieth and twenty‑first centuries the name has spread beyond the British Isles. In the United States, Purse is most frequently encountered in New England, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Texas and Illinois. Canadian registers record a higher concentration in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. The name also appears in Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world where migration from the United Kingdom has taken place.

The occupational attachments of the name are diverse. Historical accounts link members of the Purse family to shoemaking, tailoring, baking, innkeep­ing and textile production. The name’s connection to the making or selling of purses, as well as to the role of a purse carrier – whether a servant or a craftsman – suggests that the bearers of the surname were often employed in crafts or service positions that required the handling of personal items of value.

Variant spellings of Purse are numerous and were the result of different linguistic influences as the surname travelled across regions: Pers, Purs, Purseh, Pursse, Purser, Purslers, Pussell, Pusser, Persie, Pursed, Porszewicz, Puch, Percey, Pris, Price, Priss, Pryse, Purcel, Purcell, Purslow, Purslowe, Purshouse, Purkis, Pursall, Purshutt, Pusz, Prisk, Prusak and Prockter. Related surnames of the same root include Purcel, Purcell, Purslow and Purshutt. These variations reflect the phonetic interpretations of the name over time, as well as the influence of regional dialects and orthographic practices.

Typical given names associated with the Purse surname

Male

• Alan
• Andrew
• David
• Graham
• Howard
• James
• John
• Michael
• Simon
• Stephen
• Thomas
• Toby
• William

Female

• Alison
• Christine
• Elizabeth
• Jacqueline
• Julie
• Katherine
• Linda
• Lisa
• Michelle
• Susan

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 Purse in...

Braille

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Morse

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Semaphore

Famous people named Purse

• Darren Purse - Football player

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.

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