Follow
Please bring all your Fisher/Fischer relatives here. PLEASE DO NOT ADD PRIVATE PROFILES. Make sure they are set to public.
The surname Fischer is of English, German and Jewish origin. It was an occupational name for a fisherman, derived from the Middle English 'fischer' and the Old English 'fiscere'; derived from 'fiscian' to catch fish. The name thus signifies 'the fisher', from one who obtained his living by fishing. The name has also been used in Ireland as a loose equivalant of Braden. It can also be a topographical name for someone who lived near a fish weir on a river, from the Old English 'fisc' fish and 'gere' weir; dweller by an enclosure for catching fish. It is also a surname used by Jewish people as an occupational name, from the Yiddish, 'fisher'. Jonah, in the book of the bible that bears his name, was swallowed up by a 'great fish'. Jacob blessed his son with the words 'veyidgu larov', "Let them grow into a great multitude", the verb 'yidgu' containing the root letters of Hebrew 'dag' fish. The surname dates back to the twelfth century were a Richard le Fischer is recorded in historical archives. The name was brought to America by English, German and Jewish immigrants. One of the first forefathers to bring this name to America is that of a Anthony Fischer, who emigrated to America aboard the barque Rose on the 26th of June, 1637; he settled in Dedham, Massachusetts. The name is the three-hundredth and thirteenth most common surname in America.
The version of the surname spelt as Fischer was first recorded in Essex in 1263 when Richard le Fischer was recorded in the Feet of Fines. Surnames were created in England at that time due to the introduction of personal taxes known at that time as Poll Tax. Versions of the surname were extensively recorded shortly after this throughout Europe and included the surnames de Fisshar’ in 1296 and Fysser in 1344. Church records in London include the marriage of Annis Fisher in 1549.
Literally Fisher means "fisherman" in German and Yiddish. As a Jewish family name Fisher is a translation of the traditional by-name of the biblical Ephraim. Ephraim was the younger son of Joseph, whom Jacob blessed by predicting that his seed would multiply like the fish in the sea (Genesis 48.16).
Some family names associated with Fish could come from house-signs which were frequent in German towns in the Middle Ages, or from fishing and the fish trade. Fis(c)h is also one of the German/Yiddish forms of the Latin Vives ("life"), a translation of the Hebrew Hayyim. The word Hayyim, meaning "life", first appears in the Bible as a word when God creates man out of dust and breathes 'nishmat hayyim' ("the breath of life") into his nostrils (Genesis 2.7). Translations into Romance languages such as Vives, Vita and Vidal eventually produced German and Yiddish variants including Fisch, Fischel, Feivush and Feischel. Fischlin is documented as a Jewish family name in Germany in 1383, and Fischel in the 15th century. Fischbein is recorded in France in the mid 20th century with a family which changed its name to Fichebin, and the Polish spelling variant Fisz in 1956 with a family which Frenchified its name to Fize.