Sayer Family History

English: common occupational name from Middle English sayer, a phonetic variant of Sawyer, which in Wales and neighboring English counties may have been reinforced by the synonymous Welsh saer ‘carpenter’ and everywhere by a possible borrowing into Middle English of Old French seieor, saieur ‘sawyer’. English: rare occupational name perhaps denoting an assayer of metals or a servant who tasted his lord's food before serving from Middle English saiour ‘assayer, tester’ (a shortened form of Old French assaiour, ultimately from Late Latin exagium, a derivative of exagmināre ‘to weigh’).

English: rare occupational name for a professional reciter or minstrel from Middle English seier(e) ‘speaker’. English: rare occupational name perhaps from a Middle English borrowing of Old French saier ‘cloth merchant’. English (of Norman origin): from the Anglo-Norman French and Middle English personal name Saher, Seier (Old French Seheri), from ancient Germanic Sigeheri, Sighari, composed of the elements sig ‘victory’ + hari, heri ‘army’.

French: occupational name from Old French soieur, seieor, saieur ‘wood cutter, sawyer, reaper or mower’ from an agent derivative of Old French seer ‘to cut’ (from Latin secare). Dutch: occupational name for a farmer from zaaier ‘sower’ (compare).

South German: variant of Saier ‘sower’ (compare). This surname is also found in France (Alsace and Lorraine).