Plaster Family History

English and North German: metonymic occupational name for a plasterer, from Middle English, Middle Low German plaster (from Latin emplastrum ‘(wound) plaster’ (originally a paste), from Greek emplastron, a derivative of emplassein ‘to shape or form’; the term was carried over into building terminology to mean ‘bonding agent’). English: habitational name from any of various places called Plaistow (in East London, Derbyshire, Sussex, and elsewhere), from Old English plegestow ‘place where people gather for sport or play’. This can also be a variant of Plaisted (through interchangeable use of the Old English elements stow and stede, both meaning ‘place’, in earlier times). German and Ashkenazic Jewish (Pflaster): from Middle High German pflaster (German Pflaster, from Latin plastrum) ‘street pavement’, ‘pavement’, cognate with 1.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press