Cantor Family History

English (Middlesex of Norman origin): nickname or occupational name from Old French c(h)aunteor Anglo-Norman French c(h)aunter ‘singer chorister one who leads the singing’ also (in Old French) ‘poet minstrel’. The earliest examples of this surname are from Latin cantor (the ancestor of the Old French word) and refer to precentors in cathedrals or monasteries while the modern surname of Old French origin will have originally denoted a secular singing role.

Compare Canter. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Kantor. French (Picardy): learned form of chantre ‘singer’. Compare 1 above.