Storer
An occupational surname for a keeper of stores or goods, and in some areas a wool-warehouseman or manor officer.
The #9,217 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 87,315 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Storer is an occupational surname built on Middle English and Scots forms meaning a storekeeper, warehouseman, or keeper of provisions. The deeper root is Old French estor, “store” or “provisions,” ultimately from Latin instaurare, “to renew” or “restore.” Some 19th-century writers also connected it with a Scots sense of “flockmaster,” but the general occupational explanation is the strongest.
History
The surname is recorded in Yorkshire in the 1379 Poll Tax, showing it was established in medieval England quite early. It appears to have been especially familiar in northern English records, and later writers noted forms linked to local offices or to the wool trade. A related note from one source suggests the name was also used in a manor-officer context in the Isle of Ely.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One historical source specifically mentions two annual manor officers at Whittlesea in the Isle of Ely who were called Storers.
From the historical record
“Cp. Storr. STORER (A.-Fr.-Lat.) Storekeeper, Store- man; (Scotl.) Flockmaster [M.E. and M.Scot, storour, etc. ; f. (with agent, suff^ star, O.Fr. estor, store, provisions ; ult. 1. Lat. instaurare, to restore] Thomas Storour. — Yorks Poll-Tax, A.D. 1379. Tyrrheus thare fader was hie maister and gyde”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)