Confer
An uncommon surname that may have arisen as a nickname or from a place-name, though its exact origin is uncertain.
The #8,951 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 84,426 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The historical sources provided do not give a secure derivation for Confer itself. One possibility, based on surname patterns in English, is that it began as a nickname from a word or phrase associated with “confer,” though that is not well established. It may also have developed from a now-obscure local or personal name that was later simplified in spelling.
History
The name appears in 19th-century American records, including a physician named Dr. Confer, showing that the surname was in use in the United States by that period. The excerpted sources do not establish a single geographic origin or a clear older spelling history, so its deeper background remains uncertain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In the 1861 Bowditch list of surnames, Confer is recorded alongside several other uncommon American family names, suggesting it had already become a recognizable but relatively rare surname in the U.S.
From the historical record
“the great monastic or manorial pigeon- hoiises of the middle ages would readily confer such a surname. DUFTON. A parish in ■^7estmoreland. DUGALD. The same as Dougall.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom