TAYLOR SMITH

Transferred use of the surname, in origin an occupational name for a tailor (Anglo-Norman taillour, a derivative of taillier ‘to cut’, Late Latin taleare). Use as a given name was influenced by the U.S. president Zachary Taylor (1784–1850), hero of the Mexican War. As a girl's name it became well established in North America in the 1980s and has since also taken root in Britain.

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).