Farmer Family History

English: occupational name from Middle English fermo(u)r fermer and Anglo-Norman French fermer (Old French fermier medieval Latin firmarius). The term denoted in the first instance a tax farmer one who undertook the collection of taxes revenues and imposts paying a fixed (Latin firmus) sum for the proceeds and only secondarily someone who rented land for the purpose of cultivation; it was not applied to an owner of cultivated land before the 17th century.

Irish: Anglicized (part translated) form of Gaelic Mac an Scolóige ‘son of the husbandman’ a rare surname of northern and western Ireland. Americanized form (translation into English) of French Terrien ‘owner of a farmland’ or of its altered form Therrien.

Compare Pharmer.