WEARE
Weare is an English surname whose origins can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It is traditionally linked to place names in the South West of England, particularly in Somerset and Devon, and is believed to derive from the Old English words *wær* or *wer*, meaning “weir, dam, or fishing‑trap.” The name would have originally designated a person who lived near or worked at such a structure on a river or stream.
The earliest documentary evidence of the surname appears in legal records from the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. The name is recorded as *Peter de la Were* in the tax registers of 1242, known as the “Feet of Fines of Herefordshire,” during the reign of Henry the Eleventh. Another early instance is that of *John atte Wer*, found in the Subsidy Tax rolls of Sussex in 1332. By the early seventeenth century, a *John Weare* is noted as the Master of the ship “Virgin of Southampton,” which sailed to Barbados in 1639. These examples illustrate the surname’s presence across a range of social contexts in medieval England.
The etymological roots of Weare are closely tied to the geography of northern England as well. The River Wear, first mentioned by Ptolemy under the name “Vedra” in the early second century AD and derived from a Celtic word for “water,” provides a possible locational source for the surname. Alternatively, the name may have arisen from a person living by a weir or dam, or from someone who served as its keeper or overseer. Thus the surname carries both a residential and an occupational connotation.
Over the centuries the spelling of Weare has varied considerably. The forms *Wear, Wer, Weer, and Wearne* appear in parish registers and tax documents. In some cases the surname has merged with other names such as *Ware*, *Whare*, or *Weir*, though all share a common origin. The diversification of spellings reflects the lack of standardised orthography in early modern England.
Geographically, individuals bearing the surname have been concentrated in the South West of England. Towns such as Lower Weare and Upper Weare in Somerset, as well as areas in Devon, Dorset, Cornwall and Wiltshire, are traditionally associated with the name. The surname’s spread beyond Britain followed the routes of the British Empire. Communities in Australia, South Africa, Canada and the United States, particularly in North America, contain sizeable numbers of people with the surname Weare or its variants. According to the 1990 United States census, the name is the 922nd most common surname, while in Canada it ranks 326th.
The endurance of Weare as a family name illustrates the persistence of medieval naming practices in contemporary society. Whether preserved in England or carried abroad, the surname remains a marker of a lineage that, from its earliest records, was linked to the land and its waterways, and in many cases to the occupation of maintaining the fish‑traps that sustained local communities.
Typical given names associated with the Weare surname
Male
- Andrew
- Christopher
- David
- Graham
- Grant
- James
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Philip
- Richard
- Robert
- Steve
Female
- Amanda
- Anne
- Barbara
- Emma
- Gladys
- Jill
- La
- Linda
- Margaret
- Sarah
- Susan
- Valerie
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 Weare in...
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There are approximately 675 people named Weare in the UK. That makes it roughly the 9,962nd most common surname in Britain. Around ten in a million people in Britain are named Weare.
Famous people named Weare
- Tony Weare - Artist (1912 to 1994)
- Frank Weare - Flying ace (1896 to 1971)
- Jack Weare - Welsh football player (1912 to 1)
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.