Sager Family History

English (Lancashire): variant of Sawyer from Middle English sager sagher ‘sawyer’. Pronounced to rhyme with vaguer sager is a dialect variant that was still current in late 19th century Lancashire and Yorkshire as were saag saig and sague for ‘saw’ (noun and verb). The Yorkshire name may be partly indigenous to the county but it is mainly associated with a family that moved in the 16th century from Burnley (Lancashire) to Rimington and then Bradford (Yorkshire).

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) (also Säger): occupational name for a sawyer from an agent derivative of Middle High German segen sagen German sägen ‘to saw’. Compare Saeger. German: nickname for an announcer or speaker in a legal matter or for a chatterer or a braggart from Middle High German sagen ‘to speak, tell, chatter’.

German: habitational name for someone from a place called Sage in Oldenburg. Germanized and Americanized form of Slovenian and Croatian Žagar ‘sawyer’. Compare Sagar and Zager.

French: from the ancient Germanic personal name Sagher composed of the elements sag- (an element related to Gothic and Old High German words meaning ‘quarrel, law-suit’) + hari, heri ‘army’. However, in Alsace and Lorraine this surname may be of different German origin (see above).

Jewish (Ashkenazic; also Säger): nickname from an agent derivative of German sagen ‘to say’ (compare 3 above).