Shores
A locational surname from living by the shore or river/lake bank.
The #4,613 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 40,144 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Shores is a topographic surname for someone who lived by a shore, bank, or waterside edge. The word behind it is the common English shore, which ultimately goes back through French and Latin to a root meaning a bank or edge. In some historical surname work, it is also treated simply as a plural or variant form of Shore.
History
The surname appears in English records as a straightforward place-based name, formed from a feature of the landscape rather than from an occupation or personal characteristic. Because shore is such a common topographic word, the name could arise independently in different places. Modern usage in English-speaking countries is therefore likely to be multiple, unrelated local origins rather than one single family line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The underlying word shore once had a broader sense in older English, including a bank or border by water, not just the seaside.
From the historical record
“a river or lake. SHORES. See Shore. SHOREDICHE. Sec Shoreditch. SHOREDITCH. Doubtless from the district of eastern London so designated. SHOREHAM. A toAvn in Sussex, and a parish in Kent. SHORT. From diminutive stature. Il bears the same orthogi'aphy in H.E.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom