Seymour
An English surname that often began as a Norman place-name, but in some families may also have been influenced by local or occupational forms.
The #1,394 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,138 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The best-known derivation is from Norman French Saint-Maur, a place-name associated with St. Maur in Normandy; the name was later Latinized as Sancto Mauro and then anglicized to Seymour. In that line, the sense is essentially “of St. Maur,” not a descriptive meaning in English. Historical surname writers also noted other possible sources for some families, including Semer in Suffolk, the Old English seamere (“tailor”), and an old personal name Semar/Semar.
History
The surname was borne by the prominent Seymour family of Tudor England, which helped make the form especially familiar in aristocratic contexts. Early on, however, scholars already suspected that not every Seymour had the same origin, and that some bearers had adopted the spelling from unrelated local names or older forms such as Semer. That makes Seymour a good example of a surname with one famous pedigree but several possible roots.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Lower remarked that some people named Seymour may have had very humble occupations despite the surname’s aristocratic associations.
From the historical record
“Ir. Shesnan {O'Seasnain). SEYMOUR 1 (A.-Fr.-Lat.-Gr.) Bel. to St. Maur SEYMER J (France), prob. more specif. St. Maur-des-Bois, Manche, Norm. [Fr.JIfaMr, Lat. Maur-us, Gr. MaCp-os, a Moor, black • man] This name was Latinized (e.g. in the”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)