Talmadge Family History

English: nickname from Old French talemache either ‘pouch wallet beggar's bag’ or ‘mask’. The sense ‘mask’ goes back to Late Latin talamasca ‘(devil's) mask’ achieved perhaps by a blackening or painting of the face hence Old French talemaschier ‘sully stain’ and Anglo-Norman French t(h)alemasché ‘stained soiled’.

Americanized form of one or more similar (like-sounding) Jewish surnames most likely eastern Ashkenazic Tolmach (see Talmage).