Erasmus Family History

North German, Dutch, and West Indian (Dutch Caribbean): from the personal name Erasmus, Latin form of Greek Erasmos, a derivative of erān ‘to love’. Saint Erasmus (died 303) was a bishop of Formiae (modern Formia) in Campania who was martyred under Diocletian; he is numbered among the Fourteen Holy Helpers and is a patron of sailors.

However, in northern Europe from the 16th century onward, the name was more often selected in honor of the great Renaissance Dutch humanist scholar and teacher Erasmus Roterodamus (1469–1536). This surname is also established in South Africa.