Spinner
An occupational surname for someone who spun thread or yarn, especially in textile work.
The #9,503 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 90,276 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Spinner comes from Middle English spinner(e), spynner(e), from the verb spinnen, meaning “to spin.” That verb goes back to Old English spinnan, “to spin, draw out fibers into thread.” The surname originally referred to a person whose work involved spinning yarn, cloth, or flax. In older scholarship it is sometimes grouped with related textile surnames and occasionally linked in gendered terms with spinster, but the core sense is simply “spinner.”
History
The surname is found in English records as an occupational byname and later became hereditary like many trade names. Historical surname writers note its connection with textile production, which was a common medieval and early modern craft. The name survives in Britain and the United States, though it is not especially common.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books sometimes gloss Spinner alongside other textile occupations such as Weaver, Webster, and Flaxman.
From the historical record
“SPINKS, Spink's (Son). SPINNER, the M.E. spinner(e, spynner{e [f. O.E. spinnan, to spin] SPIRE, V. Spyep. SPIRES, V. Spyers. SPI RETT, a weak form (through the intermed. Spyrad: Yorks, a.d. 1379) of Spirhard, q.v. SPIRHARD (Scand.) Spear-Brave [O.N. *Spiorhar^-r—spiSr (=O.E. spere), spear -f- har^r (=O.E. h(e)ard)…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)