Usher Family History
Usher Name Meaning
English, Scottish, and Irish: occupational name for a janitor or gatekeeper, Middle English usher (Anglo-Norman French usser, Old French ussier, huissier, from Late Latin ustiarius, a derivative of classical Latin ostium ‘door’, ‘gate’). The term was also used in the Middle Ages of a court official charged with accompanying a person of rank on ceremonial occasions, and this may be a partial souce of the surname. This surname has been recorded in Ireland since the 14th century, and has sometimes been used as an equivalent of Hession. Jewish (from Poland and Ukraine): from a southern Yiddish pronunciation of the Yiddish male personal name Osher (Hebrew Asher).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
