Shumate
A surname most likely tied to an old nickname or occupational phrase involving shoes, though the historical evidence is thin.
The #4,276 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 37,149 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The excerpted source links Shumate to a phrase built around the word for "shoe" and a Dutch word meaning a mate, partner, or companion, suggesting an old descriptive label connected with shoes. Because the OCR is noisy and the explanation is fragmentary, the exact original form is uncertain. The name may have developed as a nickname or occupational surname for someone associated with shoes or shoemaking.
History
Shumate is found in the United States and is especially familiar in American records, where spellings often vary. The historical explanation in the source is not strong enough to prove a single origin, but it fits a broader pattern of surnames arising from trades or trade-related nicknames. Modern bearers likely descend from one or more unrelated family lines that converged on the same spelling.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The old dictionary note seems to connect the name with a "shoe-companion," showing how imaginative some 19th-century surname explanations could be.
From the historical record
“dealer in shoes. Shumate. Seed, a shoe ; Dutch maat, a husband, a wife, a companion. A shoe-companion. SJiiunway. Seeome, of shame, genitive of sceamu\ wceg, way. The way of shame.”
— Family Names from the Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman and Scotch