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The fisher Surname

fisher Name Meaning and History

  1. English: occupational name for a fisherman, Middle English fischer. The name has also been used in Ireland as a loose equivalent of Braden. As an American family name, this has absorbed cognates and names of similar meaning from many other European languages, including German Fischer, Dutch Visser, Hungarian Halász, Italian Pescatore, Polish Rybarz, etc.
  2. 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’.
  3. Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a fisherman, Yiddish fisher, German Fischer.
  4. Irish: translation of Gaelic Ó Bradáin ‘descendant of Bradán’, a personal name meaning ‘salmon’. See Braden.
  5. Mistranslation of French Poissant, meaning ‘powerful’, but understood as poisson ‘fish’ (see Poisson), and assimilated to the more frequent English name.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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fisher Family Facts

Distribution of fisher Families in the US in 1920
Number of fisher families
 2308-4613
 770-2307
 1-769
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com.au from the 1920 US Federal Census records

Click on a state to view fisher census records

Year

How is this helpful?

  • You can decide where (in which states) to start searching for fisher records.
  • You can see how fisher families moved over time by selecting different Census years.

What do I do next?

The information for this map came from Ancestry.com.au’s US Federal Census Collection.
  • Census records can tell you little-known facts about your ancestors such as birthplace, residence and occupation.
  • Click here to search fisher census records.

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