Last name major help!?

Question

What does the Last name Major mean? I need a site that will give me that infromation and other about Major and one without all the junk of signing up.

:)

Answer 1

Major : First name origin & meaning:

Latin: Greater; military rank

First name variations: Majeur, Majors, Majorie

Last name origins & meanings:

English: from the Norman personal name Malg(i)er, Maug(i)er, composed of the Germanic elements madal ‘council’ + gār, gēer ‘spear’. The surname is now also established in Ulster.

Hungarian: from a shortened form of majorosgazda (see Majoros), or a derivative of German Meyer.

Polish, Czech, and Slovak: from the military rank major (derived from Latin maior ‘greater’), a word related to English mayor and the German surname Meyer.

Catalan and southern French (Occitan): from major ‘major’ (Latin maior ‘greater’), denoting a prominent or important person or the first-born son of a family.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Meyer

Meyer  :  First name origins & meanings:

English: Headman, mayor

Hebrew: One who brightens

Latin: Great

German: A farmer

First name variations: Meir, Meier, Mayr, Myer, Mayor, Myerson, Mayer, Mayeer, Mayer, Meier, Myer

Last name origins & meanings:

German and Dutch: from Middle High German meier, a status name for a steward, bailiff, or overseer, which later came to be used also to denote a tenant farmer, which is normally the sense in the many compound surnames formed with this term as a second element. Originally it denoted a village headman (ultimately from Latin māior ‘greater’, ‘superior’).

Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish personal name Meyer (from Hebrew Meir ‘enlightener’, a derivative of Hebrew or ‘light’).

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Meidhir, from meidhir ‘mirth’.

Danish: variant spelling of Meier

Answer 2

This is what I found for you.

Surname: Major

Recorded in several spellings as shown below, this is a famous English medieval surname. It is however arguably of Germanic and pre 10th century Norman-French origins, being introduced into England at the famous conquest of 1066. It is a patronymic and originates from the name of the first name bearers father, the derivation being from the personal names Malgier or Mauger, with the elements "madal", meaning council, and "gari", a spear. European society has been almost invariably patriarchal throughout history, and as a result the given name of the male head of the household has often been handed on as a distinguishing name to successive generations. In this cases the earliest known example is probably that of Hugo filius Malgeri, recorded in the famous Domesday Book of the county of Essex in 1086. The surname is first recorded in the 13th century and today is found in the spellings of Mauger, Mager, Major and Mayger. Thomas Mauger is noted in the cartulary of Oseney Abbey, in Oxfordshire in the year 1260, whilst John Malger was witness in the Assize Court of Somerset in 1272. Recordings of the surname from London church registers include: the marriage of John Major and Agnes Hunt on January 29th 1567; and the christening of Alexander Majer, on June 5th 1629 at St. Botolph without Aldgate. The prime minister of Great Britain from 1990 to 1997 was John Major M.P., formerly of Brixton, In London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Mauger. This was dated 1250, in the tax rolls known as the "Feet of Fines" of Somerset", during the reign of King Henry 111rd, 1216 - 1272. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/...

has 36,000+ entries for the surname. It is free to look. Beware of ads for ancestry at the top, though