Frewer Family History
Frewer Name Meaning
perhaps from the Middle English female personal name Freware (Old English Frēowaru formed from frēo ‘free noble’ + waru ‘protectress’). However given the lateness of the surname examples it is possible that all the bearers given here belong to (2). reduced form of Middle English froward northern Middle English fraward ‘contrary wilful disobedient perverse’. The full form is illustrated below but it seems not to have survived into the 20th century except in altered forms such as Frewer and Forward .
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, 2016