Sellars
An English surname that likely began as a name for someone living by the cellars or working as a cellarer.
The #5,576 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 49,542 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Sellars is usually treated as a variant of Seller, with two main explanations in the older surname literature. One links it to Middle English cellar or cellarer, someone connected with storage cellars or a monastery household office. Another route, especially in some older books, connects related forms with French sellier, meaning a saddler; the spelling history is mixed enough that local and occupational origins may both be relevant in different families.
History
The name appears in medieval records in forms such as Celar and later Seller and Sellars, and it became established in England, especially in the north. Nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century surname writers often noted Sellars as a spelling variant of Seller. Modern references tend to treat it as part of the broader Seller/Sellars surname group rather than a single, fixed origin everywhere.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname writers even joked that Sellars could be read as if it meant “cellars,” and the spelling has long invited such wordplay.
From the historical record
“SELLAR, V. Seller. SELLARS, v. Sellers. llt:uc°K^}f°^ Sellack, q.v. SELLENGERl (A.-Fr.-Teut.) BeL to St. BELLINGER J L£ger (a common French eccles. place-name: several in Normandy) , for St. Leutg^r, Liutg#r, Liudg^r, L^6d(e)gar, i.e. National Spear fO.H. Ger. liut- (Ger. leute, people) = O.Sax. liud- = O.E. Mod…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)