Carpenter is a surname. Its use as a forename or middle name is rare. Within the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, it is ranked as the 231st-most common surname as of the 2010 Census. The English meaning of ''

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters t ...

'' is from the occupation of one who makes wooden objects and structures by shaping wood.Combined from several sources including: ''Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary'', 1996 by Barnes & Noble Books, and ''Concise Oxford Dictionary – 10th Edition'' by Oxford University Press.

Origin

Common use of the Carpenter surname in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

is seen circa 1275–1325 in

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old Englis ...

. Its use prior to this time as a surname has roots in the

Anglo-Norman French Anglo-Norman, also known as Anglo-Norman French ( nrf, Anglo-Normaund) (French: ), was a dialect of Old Norman French that was used in England and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in Great Britain and Ireland during the Anglo-Norman period. When ...

introduced into England about the time of the

Norman conquest of England The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqu ...

of 1066. The earliest attested use as a surname in English is from 1121, though its use as a secondary name or description in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'' of 1086 might have precedence. In

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...

, the surname was commonly written as "Carpentier" and its earlier form as "Charpentier". Its use as a surname may have derived as a

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

or description of one's occupation circa 900–1000. All of these variations come from the

Late Latin Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the , and continuing into the 7th century in t ...

''carpentārĭus'', denoting use as an ''artifex'' – a wagon or carriage-maker equal to a wainwright. The roots of ''carpentārĭus'' come from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

'' carpentum'', meaning a two-wheeled carriage or a form of

chariot A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000&n ...

not used directly for warfare in the community by women and others, plus ''

arius Arius (; grc-koi, Ἄρειος, ; 250 or 256 – 336) was a Cyrenaic presbyter, ascetic, and priest best known for the doctrine of Arianism. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead in Christianity, which emphasized God the Father's ...

'' – used in the masculine form as a noun denoting an agent of use from other nouns. It may be related to the

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writte ...

''carpat'' and the

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...

''carbad'' for carriage or cart, and is probably related to the Gaulish ''karros''.

Carpenter name variants

Variants include: *

Wright Wright is an occupational surname originating in England. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a shipwright i ...

– Woodwright, from "wood wright" (wood worker). Compare with Wainwright (name), from "wain wright" (a wooden wagon maker). *

Carpentier Carpentier is a Norman- Picard surname, variant form of French Charpentier and is similar to the English Carpenter, that is borrowed from Norman. In Basse Normandie, the most common form is Lecarpentier. The words ''carpentier, charpentier, c ...

and Charpentier – from the French Norman Carpentier (le Carpentier, le Charpentier), a worker of wood, derived from the late Latin "carpentarius", a maker of wooden carriages. The surname Charpentier could be the source of other surnames due to the adventurousness of some early French bearers; for example, Francois Charpentier and Joseph Charpentier were

Jacobites Jacobite means follower of Jacob or James. Jacobite may refer to: Religion * Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Churches in the Jacobite tradition and sometimes called Jacobite include: ** Syriac Orthodox Church, sometimes ...

captured during the 1745 rising while in the French Service. Francois was a native of

Dieppe Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to N ...

, France captured at

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

Marshalsea The Marshalsea (1373–1842) was a notorious prison in Southwark, just south of the River Thames. Although it housed a variety of prisoners, including men accused of crimes at sea and political figures charged with sedition, it became known, i ...

, and Joseph was captured at sea and imprisoned at Berwick. * Carpender – an English phonetic name variant, also seen as Carpendar.

In other languages

* Mac an tSaoir – Irish for "son of the descendants of the workman", anglicized as MacIntyre or Macintyre, Carpenter (particularly in and around

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

), and other related names, sometimes incorrectly as Freeman. Carpenter is not an Irish name in origin, but may have been adopted as a result of a 1465 law enacting that "every Irishman that dwells betwixt or amongst Englishmen in the County of Dublin, Myeth, Vriell, and Kildare ... shall take to him an English Surname of ... arte or science, as ... carpenter"; the surname was recorded there as early as 1636 and as late as 1890. In

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

, the surname is said to be that of an English family who settled on estates near

Tralee Tralee ( ; ga, Trá Lí, ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the Lee River') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in Count ...

as a result of the

Irish Rebellion of 1641 The Irish Rebellion of 1641 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1641) was an uprising by Irish Catholics in the Kingdom of Ireland, who wanted an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and to partially or fully reverse the plantat ...

. After the Restoration in 1660, John Carpenter, Philip Carpenter, Capt. Phillip Carpenter, and Lt. Thomas Carpenter were among the "Forty-Nine (i.e, 1649) Officers" who supported the Royalist cause in the

Irish Confederate Wars The Irish Confederate Wars, also called the Eleven Years' War (from ga, Cogadh na hAon-déag mBliana), took place in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. It was the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a series of civil wars in the kin ...

rewarded with grants of land in Ireland.John O'Hart: ''The Irish and Anglo-Irish Landed Gentry When Cromwell Came to Ireland; A Supplement to Irish Pedigrees'', M.H. Gill & Son, Dublin, 1884, p. 377. The 1659 census of County Limerick listed Carpenter as a family surname in Balliea townland, Small County Barony, and among the tituladoes (principal residents) in the barony of Cosmay in Limerick. In 1890, 10 entries for Carpenter were made in Ireland's birth indexes, with 8 in Leinster Province (County Dublin), and 1 each in Munster and Ulster provinces. Many of the MacIntyres of Northern Ireland are believed to be descended from the Scottish

Clan MacIntyre Clan MacIntyre ( gd, Clann an t-Saoir ) is a Highland Scottish clan. The name ''MacIntyre'' (from Scottish Gaelic ''Mac an t-Saoir''), means "son of the carpenter" Although no documented history of the clan exists, it is most commonly said to des ...

whose ancient seat was in Lorne.Woulfe, ''op.cit.'' A documented instance of the surname Carpenter being adopted by an Irish McIntyre in America is that of Ireland-born brothers Owen Patrick McIntyre of Placer County, California and Michael Carpenter of Ottawa County, Michigan as shown in McIntyre's last will & testament dated August 25, 1875 and filed September 11, 1875 naming his brother Michael to direct the education of his nephew and namesake Michael's son Owen Patrick Carpenter.California State Society, DAR: ''Wills and Abstracts of Wills from California Counties, Volume I'', California DAR Genealogical Records Committee Report, Series 1, Volume 91, 1957, p. 66. * Ács – carpenter in Hungarian. *Agaççy – carpenter in Turkish. * Carpentiere – carpenter in Italian, a worker of wood, from the Latin "carpentarius". * Carpintero and Carpenteiro – carpenter in Spanish. A worker in wood, from the Latin "carpentarius". * Chippie – British and Australian

slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gr ...

for a carpenter. Can be used for either the occupation or surname. * Dailidė – carpenter in Lithuanian. * De Carpenter or De Carpentier – Dutch for "the carpenter", a worker of wood, from the French Carpentier. * Plotnikov – carpenter in Russian. * Puusepp – carpenter in Estonian. * Cieśla and Cymerman – carpenter in Polish. * Tâmplaru – carpenter in Romanian. * Tesař and Teslyar – carpenter in Czech. * Timmerman – carpenter in Dutch, a worker of wood. * Tischler and Schreiner, which are also surnames, are

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

names for woodworking names/professions related to the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

word Carpenter. * Tømmermann – carpenter in Norwegian. *

Zimmermann Zimmermann is a German occupational surname for a carpenter. The modern German terms for the occupation of carpenter are Zimmerer, Tischler, or Schreiner, but Zimmermann is still used. ''Zimmer'' in German means room or archaically a chamber wi ...

– German for a worker in wood. Also the variant Simmerman.

References

{{carpenter-surname English-language surnames Occupational surnames English-language occupational surnames

Origin

Carpenter name variants

In other languages

See also

References