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Origin / History of the Chafer Name

An English medieval surname, this has been recorded as Chafer and Chaffer.  It is occupational and has at least two possible origins, one of which may be French from the pre 10^th Century Olde French word ‘chaufeur’, which has nothing directly to do with driving a vehicle, but describes the owner of a ‘chauffour’, or limekiln.  This was a word introduced by the Normans after the 1066 Invasion when for three centuries French was the official language of England.  An alternative and more likely origin is from the similar sounding Middle English word ‘chaffar’, meaning one who trades, the ultimate origin being the Olde English ‘ceapfaru’.  This gives a result similar to the surname Chapman, which also means a trader or merchant.  Occupational surnames were amongst the first to be created, but they did not usually become hereditary unless a son followed his father into the same line of business. In this case early examples of the surname recording include: John del Chaufeur in the Subsidy Tax Rolls of Yorkshire 1301, and this is a definite reference to one who lived at a limekiln, although John Chaffar also recorded in Yorkshire, in the Friary Rolls of 1360, is almost certainly a reference to a merchant.  Over the centuries surnames have continued to develop and the general lack of education up to the Victorian times and local dialects, which in many cases were extremely ‘thick’, often lead to the introduction of variant surname forms where the two base names are so similar, so as in this case to a fusing of recordings.

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