Hatcher
A surname that originally meant someone who lived by or worked at a hatch or gate opening.
The #1,210 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 10,561 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Hatcher is generally explained as a topographic or occupational name from Middle English hatch, meaning a gate, barred opening, or small entrance, plus the agent suffix -er. In older records it can point to someone living near a hatch or gate, or to a person responsible for a hatch-like barrier. The name is closely related to Hatch and Hatchett, which share the same core root.
History
The surname appears in medieval and early modern English records in forms such as atte Hache and Hatcher. Later surname writers treated Hatcher as part of a cluster of names built on Hatch, Hatchman, Hatchett, and related forms. It remains most strongly associated with England, especially southern and western counties, and later spread widely in English-speaking countries.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries note that Hatcher belongs to a whole family of names built on Hatch, including Hatchman and Hatchett.
From the historical record
“as a surname. HATCHER. From residence near a Hatch, which see, and also er. HATCHETT. Voltaire mentions _a grand vizier of Turkey called Alep Baltagi, so named from balta which signifies a hatchet— ih^t being the Turkish designa- tion of the .slaves who cut wood for the princes of Ottoman blood. " Ce vizir avait…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom