What is the surname Cramer?

Question

The last name of Cramer, in that spelling, what is it? Is it german or english or something? I dont think I am even german, but I read that Cramer is german. Is this true? If not, then what IS Cramer? help!

Answer 1

It looks like Cramer is a common German name, but it is also an English name as well.

This information and link below is from ancestry.com.  The website also contains surname facts and a Cramer message board you might want to take a look at.

cramer Name Meaning and History

Variant spelling of German and Dutch Kramer or its German variant Krämer. It is also found in England as a Huguenot name, presumably with this origin.

English: variant of Creamer

Creamer Name Meaning and History

English: occupational name for a seller of dairy products, from an agent derivative of Middle English, Old French creme ‘cream’ (Late Latin crama, apparently of Gaulish origin).

Scottish and northern Irish: occupational name for a peddler, a cognate of German Krämer (see Kramer). Sir John Skene, in his De verborum significatione (‘On the Meaning of Words’, 1681), explains the term peddler as ‘ane mechand or cremer, quha beris ane pack or creame upon his back’.

Americanized spelling of Krämer, Kramer, or Kremer.

http://www.ancestry.com/facts/cramer-fam...

Answer 2

I found this for you in relation the surname Cramer.

Surname: Cramer

This interesting surname is of German and Anglo-Saxon, pre 7th century origins. It has been widely throughout Europe in many different spellings including Cramer, Kramer, Kremer, Gramer, Graemer, Grammer, etc. It originates from an ancient word "cram" meaning cream, which has Roman (Latin) antecedents, and is occupational for either a maker or seller of dairy products, or It describes the keeper of a medieval trading post, in the modern parlance - a shop-keeper, or specifically a grocer. The surname is also recorded both in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and as there does not appear to be any Gaelic equivalent word, here again the name probably derives from the same Germanic source. Job descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and later became hereditary. In the "Old Statistical Account (1792)" of the parish of Kirkden in Angus in Scotland, "Cramer's" are described as "persons who go through the parish and neighbourhood and buy butter, hens, eggs, etc., mostly for the Dundee market". Early recordings of the surname from registers include Berhtolt Grammer, in the charters of Rottweil, Germany, in 1282, Gerhard Kremer, who is believed to be the cartographer who invented the "Mercator Projection" on which all maps are based, and John Cramer and Elizabeth Spillre, who on October 12th 1637, were married at the church of St. Mary Somerset, London, in the reign of Charles 1st of England, who was shortly afterwards to lose his head, by execution. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walther der Kramer, which was dated 1272, the ancient rolls and charters of Eblingen, Germany, during the reign of Emperor Rudolf 1st, of the German Empire, 1272 - 1291. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Hope this helps.