Esser
A German surname that can point to someone from Essen or, in some traditions, to a person associated with eating.
The #7,724 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 71,851 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Esser is found in German sources with more than one possible explanation. One line of interpretation connects it with Middle High German and related dialect words meaning a big eater or someone who eats a lot; another takes it as a habitational name for someone from the city of Essen in Germany. Because both explanations appear in older surname studies, the name is best treated as having a likely German origin but not a single certain derivation.
History
Older German onomastic works list Esser among surnames with either a descriptive meaning or a locational one, and the name remains especially associated with western German surname patterns. It also shows up in Anglicized and cross-border name lists because German surnames often traveled with migration into other parts of Europe and later to North America. In modern usage, Esser is most familiar as a German surname, though its exact family origin can differ from one bearer to another.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same surname can be read in two very different ways in old scholarship: either as “the eater” or as “someone from Essen.”
From the historical record
“Ess. F. Eisse, Aisse ; G., F)., FI. Esser; Dch. Es ; A.S. His, Hisc (ash) ; p.n. Essington. A loc. n., Staffs Estcourt. See Escott Estwick. A loc. n., Herts”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)