STAFF
Staff is a surname of English provenance, originating from the Old English word stæf, which denotes a stick, rod or pole. By the late Middle Ages it had become a hereditary designation.
The name is primarily occupational in nature. It was applied to any person whose work involved a staff; this included a steward, a herdsman, or a servant carrying a staff of office. In some contexts it also functioned as a nickname for an individual who used a staff for walking or who was noted for long, thin legs, as alluded to by Chaucer’s description of a man whose limbs were as slender as staffs.
There is an additional Germanic strand to the surname. The Anglo‑Saxon staff is associated as a cognate with the German word stab, meaning rod. In Norfolk the surname evolved as a metonymic occupational tag for someone bearing a staff of authority, sometimes linked to a right to mete physical discipline.
Early documentary evidence for the family name appears to be the 1177 entry of William Staf in the Pipe Rolls of Suffolk, during the reign of King Henry XI. A later christening record from 1692 documents Thomas Staff at St. Andrew’s, Holborn. These attestations confirm that the name entered the annals of English law and parish registers well before the 14th century.
In contemporary Britain the surname is most frequently found in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. National census data recorded just over two thousand holders of the surname in the United Kingdom in 2017, ranking it at 2183rd in commonality. Across the Atlantic, the surname persists in small numbers in Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, with fewer than three hundred families listed in the 2010 United States census.
Variant spellings are numerous, reflecting dialectical differences and language contact. In England and the Netherlands the spellings Staf, Staaf, Stafe, Staffe, Stafy, Stafey are recorded. Germanic derivatives include Stauf, Stauff, Stauffer and Stauffen. The Scottish form is typically Staph, and in Ireland the name is often rendered as Stap. Various Slavic, Norwegian, Welsh and French adaptations exist, such as Stafeevic, Staffæter, Stafs and Stavez.
Despite these spelling variations, the essence of the surname Staff remains firmly rooted in its occupational origin and in its historical ties to the utilitarian and symbolic use of the staff in English society.
Typical given names associated with the Staff surname
Male
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- James
- John
- Kevin
- Matthew
- Michael
- Neil
- Paul
- Peter
- Richard
Female
- Catherine
- Christine
- Claire
- Emma
- Helen
- Karen
- Laura
- Margaret
- Nicola
- Patricia
- Sarah
- Susan
- Victoria
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 Staff in...
Braille
⠎⠞⠁⠋⠋
Morse
...-.-..-...-.
Semaphore
There are approximately 1,317 people named Staff in the UK. That makes it roughly the 5,944th most common surname in Britain. Around 20 in a million people in Britain are named Staff.
Famous people named Staff
- Kathy Staff - Actress (1928 to 2008)
- Jamie Staff - Racing cyclist
- David Staff - 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.