SPURRIER
Spurrier is a surname of English provenance that denotes an earlier occupation. The name derives from the Middle English word spurrier, a term for a person who made or sold spurs, metal devices affixed to the heels of riding boots to aid a rider in controlling a horse.
The etymology can be traced back to Old English, the pre‑7th‑century word spura, meaning spur, combined with the agent suffix -ier, giving a literal description of an individual who worked with spurs. Early documentation shows the name in various spellings including Spurit and Spurriour.
Recorded instances of the surname appear in the 13th and 14th centuries. Examples include Nicholas Sporiare of Somerset (1327), Nicholas le Sporiere of London (1456), and Roger Spurreour of Leicester (1360). In 1298, an individual named Robert de Gisburgh was noted in the Register of the Freemen of the City of York, while John Spurier appears in the Oxford University Register in 1579. An earlier variant, Peter Spore (Spure), is dated to Sussex in 1230.
Variants of the name that have been documented are Spurrior, Spurier, Spurriar, and Spurryer. The surname continues to be found in English parish registers throughout the late sixteenth century. The most frequently recorded spelling from this period is Spurrier, but records of other forms appear within the same regions.
The Spurrier family was granted a coat of arms, consisting of an azure shield bearing a gold griffin segreant. The crest is a long gold cross upon three grieces set in sable, argent and gules. The earliest formal record of the family name is that of Benedict le Sporier, dated 1298 in the “Calendar of Early Mayor’s Court Rolls” of Cambridgeshire during the reign of Edward I.
According to other contemporary accounts, the surname was also found in France where it is linked to the Middle French verb espirer, meaning ‘to breathe’. In that context the name was associated with falconry or the manufacture of leather gloves. After the Hundred Years’ War the name entered England in regions along the southeastern coast. By the nineteenth century many individuals with the surname had emigrated to the United States, where it is now primarily concentrated in the southern states.
Data from the United States Census Bureau in 2019 show that 4,400 people bore the surname Spurrier across the country, with a concentration of nearly half in Texas, and significant numbers in California, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma. In Mississippi the surname ranks among the most common within the state, and it appears in the top 500 surnames in several other southern states.
Prominent modern bearers of the name include American football player and coach Steve Spurrier, who was a Heisman Trophy winner in 1966 and led the University of Florida to a national championship in 1996. Other individuals listed in contemporary records and publications include the British artist Mitzi Spurrier and a university administrator named Judy Genshaft, who served as president of a Florida institution. The achievements of these individuals demonstrate the continued recognition of the name in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Typical given names associated with the Spurrier surname
Male
- Christopher
- David
- Edward
- John
- Nicholas
- Peter
- Richard
- Robert
- Simon
- Stephen
- Steven
- Timothy
Female
- Alice
- Arabella
- Barbara
- Catherine
- Emma
- Jill
- Joan
- Lynn
- Patricia
- Rebecca
- Sarah
- Susan
- Tracey
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 Spurrier in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 511 people named Spurrier in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around eight in a million people in Britain are named Spurrier.
Famous people named Spurrier
- Paul Spurrier - Film director
- Steven Spurrier - Artist (1878 to 1961)
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.