The surname ''Chaucer'' is thought to have one of the following derivations: * The name ''Chaucer'' frequently occurs in the early ''

Letter Books Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech or none in the case of a silent letter; any of the symbols of an alphabet * Letterform, the g ...

'' and in French language of the time it meant "

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or '' cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cen ...

", which meaning is also recorded in the "Glossary of Anglo-Norman and Early English Words".Alfred Allan Kern, ''The Ancestry of Chaucer'' (Google eBook), Lord Baltimore Press, 1906
p. 6
/ref> * From French 'chaussier', 'chaucier', a hosier. * It may have arisen from 'chaufecire', 'chafewax', i.e. a clerk of the court of Chancery whose duty consisted in affixing seals to royal signature.Grace E. Hadow, ''Chaucer and His Times''
(book description)
/ref> However, Kern doubted this derivation, since the surname 'Chaucer' was too common. The first two derivations are ultimately traced to Latin ''calcearium'', "shoemaker". The surname may refer to: * Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk * Chaucer Elliott (1879–1913), Canadian sportsman *

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

, "Father of English literature" * Thomas Chaucer (c. 1367 – 1434), Speaker of the English House of Commons

References

{{Cobbler-surname English-language surnames French-language surnames