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Origin / History of the Collier Name

This long-established name is of early medieval English origin, and is an occupational surname for a burner of charcoal, or a gatherer or seller of coal.  The name derives from the Middle English ‘cole’, (char)coal, from the Olde English pre-7^th Century ‘col’, with the agent suffix ‘(i)er’, denoting ‘one who does or works with’.  Job-descriptive surnames were originally acquired with reference to the actual occupation of the name bearer, and gradually became hereditary.  The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ranulf Colier, which was dated 1150, in ‘Documents relating to the Danelaw’.  Other early examples of the surname include: Bernard le Coliere, in the Somersetshire Pipe Rolls of 1172; Henry le Colyer, in the Buckinghamshire Hundred Rolls of 1275; and John le Collier, in the London Patent Rolls of circa 1280.  The modern surname forms range from Collier, Colliar and Colliard, to Collyer, Colyer, Collyear and Colleer.

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