Spence surname meaning

Spence is an English and Scottish surname tied to the pantry of a great house or monastery. Middle English spence or spense meant “pantry,” “larder,” or “storeroom,” from Old French despense and ultimately Latin dispendere, “to weigh out or dispense.” The name marked someone who worked in that office—closely related to Spencer, the fuller steward and provisioner surname. Spens is a Scots form. Dictionary wording sometimes calls it a nickname for the pantry servant, but the underlying sense is the household office itself. Occupation is the catalog type, at high confidence.