CLAUDE SMITH

French: from the Latin name Claudius. It was borne by various early saints, but its popularity in France is largely due to the fame of the 7th-century St Claude of Besançon. This form is widely used in the English-speaking world and has superseded Claud as the preferred spelling in Britain and the United States.

English: occupational name for a worker in metal, from Middle English smith (Old English smið, probably a derivative of smītan ‘to strike, hammer’). Metalworking was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents were perhaps the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is the most frequent of all American surnames; it has also absorbed, by assimilation and translation, cognates and equivalents from many other languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).