Scottish and northern English in origin: occupational name for a steward or estate manager, Middle English greve, Old English græfa. Compare Reeve and Sheriff. This word was originally distinct from Grave, but some confusion has occurred as a result of the close similarity in both form and meaning.

Scottish surnames divide themselves into two classes, Highland, and Lowland. In very few instances were they assumed before the eleventh, and indeed by far the larger proportion, since the thirteenth century.

They have originated in various ways; are derived from localities, as Maxwell, Nisbet, Ralston; baptismal names, as Anderson, Bennett, Lawrence ; trades, as Baxter, Fletcher, Nasmyth ; offices, as Bannerman, Grieve, Walker; professions, as Clerk, Freer, Kemp; peculiarities of body and mind, as Fairfax, Laing, May; armorial bearings, as Cross, Heart, Horn; nativity,=

=