Buckner
An English surname probably built from buck, the deer, plus an ending used in old personal or place-names.
The #1,434 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,438 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is generally linked to the English word buck, meaning a male deer, but the exact formation is not certain. Older scholars noticed Buckner alongside other deer-based surnames and place-names, yet did not fully explain the final element. It may preserve an old name or local form that later settled into hereditary surname use.
History
The name appears in English surname tradition and later spread to North America with English-speaking migration. Because the ending is obscure, historical writers have treated it as a difficult or partially opaque surname rather than one with a single secure explanation. It is now established as a fairly uncommon but recognizable surname in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Nineteenth-century surname scholars specifically listed Buckner among names they thought were derived from the deer-word buck, but admitted the full shape of the name was not easy to explain.
From the historical record
“been borrowed from this animal, some of which are not readily explainable, as Buckmill, Buckthought, Buckner, and Bucktootli. Buckoke, Buckthorj^e, and others, are quite intelligible, tJiough the localities are unknown to me. BUCKENHAM. Four parishes in Nor-”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom