FISHER

In a few cases, the English name may in fact be a topographic name for someone who lived near a fish weir on a river, from the Old English term fisc-gear ‘fish weir’.

Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a fisherman, Yiddish fisher, German Fischer.

Irish: translation of Gaelic Ó Bradáin ‘descendant of Bradán ’, a personal name meaning ‘salmon’. See Braden.

Mistranslation of French Poissant, meaning ‘powerful’, but understood as poisson ‘fish’ (see Poisson), and assimilated to the more frequent English name.