Tinker
An occupational surname for a metal mender or itinerant repairer, especially one who fixed pots and pans.
The #5,525 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 49,077 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Tinker comes from Middle English tinkere, meaning a mender of metal goods, especially household utensils. The word is commonly linked with the verb tinkle, because such workers advertised their arrival by making a jangling or tinkling noise with their tools. In surname use, it began as a straightforward job-name for a traveling repairman.
History
The surname appears early in English records and is especially associated in older sources with southern England, while the related form Tinkler is noted as northern. Historical surname writers also connected the name with itinerant pedlars and traveling craftsmen who repaired pans and small metalware from place to place. It remains a recognizable English occupational surname today.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books note that a tinker’s approach was sometimes announced by the sound of the tools or metal they carried, which may have helped shape the word itself.
From the historical record
“Barons of Tynedale and Langley Castle. TINKER. The occupation. Thicker PLR. TIN SLAY. See Tlnsley. TINSLEY. A chapelry in the parish of Rotherham, co. York. TINSON. An abbreviated form of Stinson. Stephenson. TIN TEN. A place In the parish of St.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom