Mather
An English surname that likely began as an occupational name for a mower or reaper, though a rare baptismal explanation also appears in older scholarship.
The #4,652 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 40,512 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest traditional explanation connects Mather with Middle English mather, a word for a mower or reaper, related to the idea of cutting hay or grass. Older writers also proposed a link to an Old English personal-name element meaning something like “power” or “might,” but that view is much less convincing in the surname literature. In practice, the name is usually treated as occupational, parallel to surnames such as Mawer.
History
Bardsley notes the name as especially familiar in Lancashire and says there is more evidence for the occupational origin than the baptismal one. Harrison also records the occupational sense and treats related forms such as Mathers and Matherson as derivatives. The surname also appears as a village name in Kincardineshire, but the surname itself is not usually explained from that place-name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older surname studies, Mather was grouped with other occupation-based names like Baker, Fletcher, and Parker.
From the historical record
“MATES prob. = Matts, q.v. MATHER (Eng.) i Movjter [O.E. mck'Sere] . 2 Power-Army [A.-Sax. Mcethhere — m(B% power, capacity, rank, reverence -f here, army] MATHERS, Mather's (Son) ■[„ r. .. MATHERSON, Mather's Son ;^- "^atner. MATHESON for Matthewson, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)