Jobber Family History

Perhaps from a reduced form of the Middle English (Old French) personal name Jo(i)bert; compare Joubert. This is suggested by the Staffs location of modern Jobber where other variants of Jobert may survive in the names of Mary Jobet 1718 in IGI (Lichfield Staffs), Samuell Jobett 1730 in IGI (Derby Derbys), Thomas Jobbitt 1774 in IGI (Walsall Staffs), and Sarah Jobbard 1822 in IGI (Darlaston Staffs).

See also Jobin and Jobborn, which have Staffs associations and may be pet forms of Jobert. Some of the following early bearers may alternatively belong under (2) or (3). From Middle English jobber of uncertain meaning, Richard le Jobbere (1277–8 in a copy dated 1662) was a carpenter paid for working and making huts at Vale Royal Abbey near Northwich, Cheshire.

The name might be a derivative of job ‘a piece of work’, though the word is not recorded in OED before the mid-16th century; hence ‘pieceworker’ perhaps. Other examples of the name might be derivatives of Middle English jobben ‘to peck or poke (something)’ (with a mattock perhaps) or of Middle English jubbe, jobbe ‘a large vessel for holding liquids’, hence ‘maker and seller of jubbs’.

Perhaps from a reduced form of Middle English jobard ‘fool’.