Wheeler surname meaning

Wheeler is an English occupational surname for someone who made or worked with wheels. In a preindustrial town that usually meant a wheelwright, whose craft supported carts, wagons, mills, and other transport. The word could also describe a person who operated a wheel, but the hereditary surname is most naturally tied to the wheel-making trade. Different Wheeler families could therefore have received the name independently in different places. Older spellings vary, and modern Wheelers do not need to share one medieval workshop. Occupation is the direct meaning and the best-supported catalog type.