Pinder
An English occupational surname for the manorial officer who impounded stray animals.
The #7,968 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 74,379 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Pinder comes from Middle English pinder, the name for a petty manorial officer whose job was to impound stray cattle or other animals found roaming on common land. The word is linked to the verb pind, meaning to shut up or impound, and is related to older English administrative vocabulary for rural law and grazing control. In effect, the name originally meant something like "the pound-keeper."
History
Historical records show the office and the surname in medieval England, especially in manorial and county documents. The term also appears in ballads and later antiquarian writing, including the familiar phrase "the Pindar of Wakefield," which helped keep the word in literary memory. The surname survives today as an English name and has also traveled to other English-speaking countries.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The pinder was essentially the person responsible for corralling stray beasts before they caused trouble on common pasture.
From the historical record
“PENDER (Eng.) \ the A.-Sax. Pendhere [v. under Pend(e)gast, and + O.E. here, army] 2 a var. of Pinder, q.v. William le Pendere. — Mun. Gildh. Land. PENDERGAST PENDERGEST PENDERGRASS”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)