Cash
A surname with several possible roots, most often explained as a Scottish place-name or a Gaelic form linked to Mac Uais.
The #1,200 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 10,474 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name Cash has been explained in more than one way. One line of scholarship treats it as a locational surname from Cash in Strathmiglo, Fife. Another links it to Gaelic Mac Cash, Mac Cosh, or Mac Uais, with Mac Uais understood as a Gaelic patronymic element. Because the historical sources disagree, the surname is best treated as having uncertain or mixed origins rather than a single certain derivation.
History
19th-century surname writers recorded Cash mainly in Scotland, especially in connection with the Fife place-name, but they also connected it with Gaelic forms found in Ireland and Scotland. Later writers repeated both explanations, showing that the name’s origin was not settled even among early onomasticians. In English-speaking countries today, Cash is also familiar as the surname of the singer Johnny Cash, though that does not affect its etymology.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older surname books even grouped Cash with related forms such as Gush, showing how fluid surname spelling and pronunciation could be in the 1800s.
From the historical record
“CASELEY. See Castley. CASH. A place in Strathmiglo, co. Fife. CASHMERE. R.G. 16. Does not refer to the "far-off East," but to some English locality unknown to me. Mere is not un- frequent as a termination. CASSAN". The family of Cassan, or De Cassagne, derive from Stephen Cassan, a native of Montpellier, who tied…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom