Jasper
A surname that usually began as a baptismal name, ultimately tied to the given name Jasper/Gaspar, the traditional name of one of the Magi.
The #3,687 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 32,054 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally understood as a patronymic or baptismal surname from the personal name Jasper, a medieval form related to Gaspar/Gaspard. In Christian tradition, Gaspar is one of the names later attached to one of the Three Wise Men, and the name was borrowed into European languages in several spellings. The deeper root is probably Persian in origin, though the surname itself entered English through French and other continental forms rather than directly.
History
Bardsley notes that Jasper was very rare as an English surname and seems to have been mainly a surname taken from a once-common given name. The name also appears in Dutch and German surname tradition, with spellings such as Jasper and Jaspers, and in French as Gaspard or Jaspar. In English records it can appear as a family name in the 16th and 17th centuries, though it never became especially common.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname scholars were interested in Jasper because it could be mistaken for the gemstone word, but in surname use it is usually a personal-name surname, not an occupational or descriptive one.
From the historical record
“Jasp«r. — Bapt. 'the son of Jasper' ; Fr. Gaqwrd. Very rare in Englaod as a surname. I have not found any early instances, but It was at one time common a Christian name.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances