Herring surname meaning
An English, Dutch, and German metonymic name for a herring fisher or seller, with nickname and German habitational senses also recorded.
Confidence: Disputed. More than one origin is plausible, or sources disagree. We show the conflict rather than pick a cute answer.
The short story
Herring is an English, Dutch, and German surname from the fish name: Middle English hering, Dutch haring, Middle High German hærinc. It most often marked a herring fisher or seller, or someone associated with the fish in trade. DAFN also allows a nickname sense—“a trifle” or something of little value—and a German habitational reading from Herringen in Westphalia, plus Ashkenazic Hering variants. Occupation is the catalog lead for the metonymic fisher-or-seller explanation. Confidence is disputed because the nickname and habitational streams are well documented alternatives under the same American spelling.
Also seen as: Herring, Hering, Häring, Haring
- Ancestry / DAFN entry for Herring (herring fisher/seller; nickname ‘trifle’; German Herringen; Hering)
- Geneanet / DAFN synthesis for Herring and Hering (occupational and habitational routes)
- Names2020_LastNames_RaceHispanic_Top1000.xlsx (2020 Census)