Mast
A name that may come from the word for the mast of a ship, though it is also often found as a descriptive or occupational surname in broader surname lists.
The #2,288 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 19,379 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Mast is most likely connected with the common Germanic word for a ship’s mast, found in English and related languages. In some surname traditions, such forms could arise either as a metonymic occupational name for a sailor or shipwright, or as a nickname for someone associated with ships or tall, mast-like features. In some cases it may also reflect continental Germanic surname patterns rather than a single fixed English origin.
History
The name appears in 19th-century surname lists alongside other nautical surnames such as Sailor, Boatman, Keel, and Rudder, which suggests an association with seafaring vocabulary. It is also attested in Anglo-American naming patterns as a short, plain surname, but the historical evidence provided here does not support one single origin for every family called Mast. In North America it may reflect multiple independent sources, including immigrant Germanic surnames.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In one 19th-century American surname survey, Mast is grouped with names like Boatman, Sailor, Keel, and Rudder, showing how often everyday nautical words became family names.
From the historical record
“< litylman,* and the longest ' long- man.' * Longman hat the mydil- mast, for longest fynger hit is.* 1694. Married— Motes Pearepoint and Mary Midlemaas : St Jaa. Clerkenwell, ill 214.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)