Usher
An occupational surname for a doorkeeper or court attendant.
The #4,742 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 41,293 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Usher comes from a word for a court official or doorkeeper. The English form goes back through Anglo-French and Old French to Latin ostiarius, meaning “doorkeeper,” from ostium, “door.” In medieval English records, an usher could be an attendant in a great house, court, or law court, not just a school official as the word often means today.
History
The surname was commonly explained as a name taken from an ancestor who held the office of usher. Lower notes a tradition that an early bearer of the Irish family adopted the name after serving as usher to King John, while Harrison simply treats the surname as the occupational term itself. In England it also appears in longer forms such as Usherwood, later shortened in some cases to Usher.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Chaucer uses the plural form “usshers” in the Canterbury Tales, showing that the title was familiar in Middle English.
From the historical record
“USBORN(E for Osborn(e, q.v. USHER "1 (A.-Fr.-Lat.) Doorkeeper [M.E. USSHZR ] uschere, uss{h)er, O.Fr. ussier (Fr. huissier), Lat. ostiarius, doorkeeper] The iisshers and the squiers been y-goun [gone]. — Chaucer, Cant. Tales, F 293. USHERWOOD, V. Isherwood. USK (Celt.) Dweller by the R. Usk, anc. Isca”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)