Faber

Etymology

Faber is the Latin word for a worker or craftsman, especially a smith or carpenter. In medieval records it was often used as a learned Latin equivalent of Germanic occupational surnames such as Schmidt or Zimmermann, and sometimes as the Latinized form of English Wright. The surname therefore began as a job description rather than a family name in the modern sense.

History

The name appears early in medieval Latin documents, where clerks regularly translated vernacular occupational names into Latin. Bardsley and Lower both note that Faber could stand in for Wright, Smith, or Carpenter in records, which means some bearers adopted it only through documentary habit. It later became fixed as an inherited surname in parts of Britain and on the Continent, and remains relatively uncommon in English-speaking countries.

Origin

Regions

Variant spellings

Fun fact

In old records, the same person might appear as both Smith and Faber, depending on whether the clerk was writing in English or Latin.

Related surnames