Strother
A North English and Border surname meaning someone who lived by a marsh or stream.
The #4,910 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 43,061 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Older surname dictionaries usually treat Strother as a local name from northern England, especially Northumberland and the Border counties. It is commonly explained from a dialect word meaning “marsh” or “wet ground,” with some writers also connecting it to a stream-term in Gaelic. The two ideas are not fully compatible, so the safest summary is that it denotes a person living beside wetland or water.
History
The name is strongly associated with Northumberland, Newcastle, and the Border region in early records. Harrison cites the Strother Hills in Durham and a 14th-century Alan del Strother in Tynedale. Bardsley likewise calls it a North-English and Border surname and notes that forms like Langstroth may preserve the longer phrase “the long strother.”
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley suggested that the surname Langstroth may have lost its final syllable over time from an older form meaning “the long marsh.”
From the historical record
“ST ROOD : V. Stroud. STROTHER (Celt.) Dweller by a Stream [Gael, (and Ir.) sruthair, a stream] There are the Strother Hills, Durham and an ' Alan del Strother ' was Bailiff of Tindale (Tynedale) in 1358. Cp. Struther. STROUD (Eng.) Bel. to Stroud or Strood ; or Dweller at the Brushwood or Thicket [O.E. strod =…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)