Elmore
A habitational surname meaning “from Elmore,” especially the place in Gloucestershire.
The #1,369 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 11,979 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Elmore is generally treated as a locational surname, taken from places called Elmore. The Gloucestershire place-name is usually explained from Old English elements meaning “elm” plus “moor” or “marsh,” giving the sense of a place marked by elm trees in wet ground. Some 19th-century writers also noted a Dorset Elmore, but the surname is most often connected with the Gloucestershire locality.
History
Bardsley explicitly distinguished Elmore from the similar-looking surnames Elmer and Ellmar, warning that they should not be confused. The name appears in English records in medieval and later forms as a place-derived byname, and it later spread as a hereditary surname. In the United States it is established but not among the most common surnames, ranking around the middle hundreds in the 2010 census.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley thought some earlier editors had mistakenly filed Elmer and Ellmar under Elmore, so the surname became a small battleground of Victorian surname scholarship.
From the historical record
“an of Elmer,' i.e. Aylmer, q.v. To be carefully distinguished from Elmore, q.v. jtJ73- A. ■ iff., ibid. I Edw.lll:”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances