Horner
A surname that can mean either a maker or seller of horn goods, or in some cases a name from a place called Horn.
The #1,500 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,929 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Horner is usually explained as an occupational surname from Middle English horn, meaning horn, plus -er, a person associated with that material or trade. In older use, horn was worked into many everyday objects, so a horner could be a maker or seller of horn wares. Some families may instead have taken the name from a local place-name based on horn, which is why a few old surname books also treat it as locational in certain regions.
History
The name appears in medieval English records and later becomes common enough to be cited in county and city surname lists. One 19th-century source also links Horner with the craft of horn manufacturing and notes that hornworkers were organized in London. As with many English surnames, some later bearers may descend from different origins under the same spelling, especially where local place-names influenced the form.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century etymologist remarked that horn was once used for many everyday purposes that later fell to glass, metal, or wood.
From the historical record
“Ess. iii. HORNER. A manufacturer of horn. In London the horners and bottle-makers form one Company. Horn was anciently applied to many uses for which glass and other materials are at present employed. "Horns," says Fuller, "are a commodity not to be slighted, seeing I cannot call to mind any other substance so hard…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom