Dearman
An English surname that most likely began as a pet-form personal name, though some sources also connect it with deer-keeping or deer hunting.
The #8,230 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 76,612 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is usually explained from an early English personal name such as Dereman or Deorman, built on the element dear or deor, meaning "dear" or "beloved." In that sense it would originally have meant something like "son of Dereman" or "descendant of a beloved one." Some 19th-century writers also suggested a link with a deer keeper or hunter, but that looks more like a later folk explanation than the main origin.
History
Bardsley cites Domesday forms such as Dereman and Derman and treats Dearman as a surname formed from an early baptismal or personal name. Lower likewise records Dearman as an Anglo-Saxon personal name, while also noting an occupational sense, so the history of the name is a little mixed in older scholarship. The surname is established in England by the later medieval period and remains relatively uncommon, though it has continued into modern English-speaking countries.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname writers liked to compare Dearman with other affectionate names such as Darling and Dearlove, because they saw the same idea of endearment behind them.
From the historical record
“old Germanic personal name Deorlaf. DEARMAN. 1. An A. Sax. personal name. In Domesday Dereman and Der- man. 2. A keeper of deer. D E E 85 DEARY. " There was a Diora, bishop of Rochester, whose name must have been au epithet of affection." Ferguson.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom