Teller
An occupational surname for a cloth-maker or weaver, from an old French word for a textile worker.
The #8,623 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 80,951 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname comes from Old French tellier, meaning a weaver or cloth-maker. That word is ultimately from Latin tela, meaning a web, cloth, or woven fabric. In medieval records, the name could be used for someone whose trade was connected with weaving or textiles.
History
The name appears in medieval English records, including a 1379 Yorkshire poll-tax entry for Johannes Teller. Later surname writers generally treated it as a craft name rather than as a nickname or another kind of occupational term. The spelling has remained fairly stable, though related forms and spellings occur in older records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older surname studies, Teller was linked with the same Latin root that gave English words connected to weaving and textiles.
From the historical record
“was Telfor. TELLER \ (A. - Fr. - Lat.) Cloth - Maker, TELLIER r Weaver [O.Fr. tellier, Ulier (mod. Fr. toilier), a weaver; f. telle, Lat. tela, cloth] Johannes Teller. — Yorks Poll-Tax, A.D. 1379. Encore aujourd'hui Ton donne, en”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)