Mayers

This interesting name is of early medieval English origin, and is one of the patronymic forms of the surname "Mayer", found as Mayers, Myers, Meyers and Miers, the "s" being an abbreviated form of "son of Mayer". The surname is an occupational or "status" name for a mayor, derived from the Middle English and Old French term "mair, maire", from the Latin "maior", greater, superior. In France, and in Scotland, where the surname is usually found as "Mair", the title denoted various minor local officials, while in England the term was normally used only of the chief officer of a borough. The surname may have been given therefore to a citizen of some standing who had held this office, and also perhaps as a nickname to an officious or pompous person. Among the early recordings from London Church Registers are the marriages of Richard Mayers and Sara Loveney on April 21st 1665, at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, and of Rebekkah Mayers and Edward Halshids on December 11th 1694, at All Hallows, London Wall. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Herewardus le Mire, which was dated 1212, in the "Curia Regis Rolls of Berkshire", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. 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.