Garner Family History

English (of Norman origin): perhaps occasionally from the Old French personal name Garnier (see Garnier) but it is exceptionally rare as a personal name in medieval England and no certain evidence has been found for its use as a surname. Compare Warner.

English: from Middle English gern(i)er garner gurner Anglo-Norman French gerner ‘granary’ (Old French grenier from Late Latin granarium a derivative of granum ‘grain’). It was probably a metonymic occupational name for someone in charge of the stores kept in a granary.

English and Scottish: commonly shortened form of Gardner. South German: from an agent derivative of Middle High German garn ‘thread’; by extension an occupational name for a fisherman.