Cleaver
An English surname that can mean either a woodcutter or, in older records, a mace-bearer.
The #7,387 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 68,473 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname has two plausible occupational strands. In common English usage, it comes from Middle English cleve/cleven, “to cleave” or split, and refers to a person who split wood, especially in trades such as lath-cleaving. Older surname scholarship also notes a separate medieval official sense, from Latin claviger via French, meaning “mace-bearer” or “key-bearer,” though that explanation is less likely for the modern surname form.
History
Lower explicitly explains CLEAVER as an occupational name for someone who cleaves wood, and this is the safest general reading. Bardsley, however, discusses a related older official byname for a mace-bearer, showing that the word had specialized administrative uses in medieval records. The surname is established in England and later spread to other English-speaking regions, including the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older forest districts, lath-cleaving was still a distinct occupation when 19th-century surname writers were compiling their dictionaries.
From the historical record
“CLEAVE. See Cleeve. CLEAVER. One who cleaves wood. In forest districts, lath-cleaving is still a dis- tinct occupation. CLEE. Parishes in cos. Lincoln and Salop. CLEEVE. Parishes, &c., in Gloucester, Somerset, and Worcester. CLEGG. "O. Norse, hleggi, a compact”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom