Grover
A surname usually meaning “dweller by a grove” or “from the grove,” with a secondary occupational explanation in some older sources.
The #2,056 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 17,608 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Most historical surname dictionaries connect Grover to Grove, with Grover meaning a person who lived by or came from a grove of trees. In older English naming, the suffix -er often marked someone associated with a place or feature, so Grover can function as a locational surname. One 19th-century source also suggested an occupational sense, “one who carves or engraves,” but that is less widely accepted than the grove/place explanation.
History
The name appears in medieval English records in forms tied to Grove and Groves, and later became established as a hereditary surname. It is most common in England and later spread to other English-speaking countries, including the United States. The surname is also found in variant spellings such as Groves and, less commonly, older forms like Graver.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older surname writers treated Grover as a place-based form of Grove, while one source also connected it with carving or engraving—an example of how 19th-century etymologies could disagree.
From the historical record
“Edward III. GROVER. See Grove. GROVES. See Grove. GROWSE See Grouse. GRUBBE. "The family of Grubbo, 6pelt in the old registers Griilie or Groube, migrated from Germany about the year 1430, after the Hussite persecutions, and subsequently settled at Eastwell in the par- isli of Potterne, co. Wilts, where they have”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom