DOROTHY BAKER

Usual English form of Dorothea. The name was not used in the Middle Ages, but was taken up in the 15th century and became common thereafter. It was borne by the American film star Dorothy Lamour (1914–1996, born Dorothy Kaumeyer).

English: occupational name, from Middle English bakere, Old English bæcere, a derivative of bacan ‘to bake’. It may have been used for someone whose special task in the kitchen of a great house or castle was the baking of bread, but since most humbler households did their own baking in the Middle Ages, it may also have referred to the owner of a communal oven used by the whole village. The right to be in charge of this and exact money or loaves in return for its use was in many parts of the country a hereditary feudal privilege. Compare Miller. Less often the surname may have been acquired by someone noted for baking particularly fine bread or by a baker of pottery or bricks.