Finger
A surname that may come from a finger-related nickname or from a German place-name pattern, and is not secure in one single origin.
The #6,739 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 61,700 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is probably connected either with the English word for the hand digit or with a Germanic place-name element seen in forms like -fingen/-fingr. In English usage, it would most naturally have begun as a nickname, perhaps for someone with a notable finger or hand gesture, though the historical evidence here is thin. In German, it may reflect a habitational surname from a place name containing -fingen, rather than the body-part word itself.
History
The historical excerpts do not give a direct entry for this surname, but one 19th-century surname study notes that Finger occurs as a surname and discusses German place-name endings that can produce similar forms. In English-speaking countries it is uncommon and may be an immigrant surname as much as a native one. Because the sources here are incidental rather than authoritative headword entries, the exact line of development remains uncertain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same spelling can fit two very different surname stories: an English nickname or a German habitational name.
From the historical record
“some curious nuraeiy liuea upon the 6Dgers(v. fitgm, Halliweli), wherein the little finger is styled ■litylman,' and the longest 'long- man.' ' Longman hat ^e mydil- mLBXIBS”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances