Tester Family History

English (southeastern): nickname from Old French testard a pejorative derivative of teste ‘head’ for a know-all or someone with a big head (see Testa).

German: from Latin testa ‘head’ hence a nickname for someone with a large or otherwise remarkable head or especially in Bavaria a topographic name for someone who lived at one end of a village or a row of fields from the same word.

German: metonymic occupational name for a silver smelter from Bavarian test ‘furnace for refining silver’.