Moorman
A surname that most likely meant “the man who lived by the moor” or “the moor man.”
The #4,780 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 41,728 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Moorman is transparently made from Middle English/Old English moor, meaning a moor or marshy heath, plus man. In surname use, this usually meant someone associated with a moorland place — especially a person living near or on the moor — rather than an occupation in the strict sense. Some older writers also noted forms like German Mohrmann and treated the English name as parallel to other "-man" surnames built on topography or local association.
History
The name appears in medieval English records, including a 1379 Yorkshire example cited by Bardsley. Later surname dictionaries treat it as a fairly ordinary local or topographic surname, with English instances in several regions. In the United States it remained uncommon but established enough to show up in modern census counts.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Late-19th and early-20th-century surname scholars often grouped Moorman with names like Houseman and Bridgeman as a descriptive local surname built from a common noun plus -man.
From the historical record
“ON THE Moor [O.E. m6r + hus] MOORMAN (Eng.) = Moor (q.v.) + man. MOORSOM (Eng.) Bel. to Moorsham (Yorks) = the Moor's Ham [genit. of O.E. m(lr, a moor -|- Aa»?(?B,a piece of land,dwelling] MOORWOOD (Eng.) Dweller at the Moor- Wood [O.E. mdr -|- wudu] MORAN (Celt.) i SEA-WARRiOR[Ir. Murchadh- an^mu{i)r, sea -|- the…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)