Silver
A name probably from the old word for silver, often used as a personal name and sometimes linked to gray or silvery hair.
The #1,632 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 14,001 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Silver comes from the old word for the precious metal, the same root seen in Old English and related German forms. In surname use, it was likely first a personal name or byname, and could also have suggested a person with silver-gray hair or a bright, shining appearance. Some 19th-century writers treated it as an inherited old personal name rather than a trade name.
History
The surname appears in English records as an old name form and later became established in Britain and among English-speaking communities. It is also found as a Jewish surname, where German Silber and English Silver could overlap in spelling or be adapted into similar forms. Related names such as Silverlock were explained by early writers as referring to white or hoary hair.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early surname writers sometimes compared Silver with other color-based names like Black, White, and Gray, because such names often began as descriptive bynames.
From the historical record
“name, SILVER. Probably an old personal name. It corresponds with the Germ. Silber. Ferguson. SILVERLOCK. Doubtless from the hoary head of the first bearer of the name. So Blacklock, Whitelock, &c.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom