This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the horner,' one who manufactured horn into cups, &c. (2) Occup. 'the horner,' a horn-blower; compare Corner (3). Only one instance occurs in the Hundred Rolls, where Corner is the usual form.

Matilda le Homere, Huntingdonshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Richard le Homer. 1303. Writs of Parliament.

John le Homer. Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem.

Johannes Homer, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Ricardus Hornar, 1370: ibid.

Johannes Forester, horner, 1383-4: Freemen of York.

1565. Baptised — Thomas, s. John Horner: St. James, Clerkenwell.

1594. Giles Peacock and Elizabeth Homer: Marriage Lic. (London).

From the obsolete occupation of 'horner,' a maker of horn spoons. Nicholas Horner was a leading burgess of Arnbroath in the latter half of the fifteenth century (Hay, Arnbroath, p. 107). It is uncertain if Horner's Wynd (now, since 1860, Commerce street) be named from him or from the Horner's Croft being located there. Thomas Hornar was a burgess of Arnbroath in 1452 (RAA., II, 94), and Andrew Hornar or Horner appears as witness to Scone charters in 1544 and 1570 (Scon, p. 207,212). The surname is also found in Glasgow in 1551. Francis Horner (1778—1817), the political economist, was the most prominent bearer of the name. Hornear 1553.

(English) 1 Horn-Worker; Horn- Maker.

2 Horn-Blower, Trumpeter [Middle English horner(e - horne, Old English horn, horn, trumpet + the agential suff. -ere] Richard le Horner.—Parl. Writs.

(English, German) One who made horn spoons, combs, etc; one who blows a horn, a trumpeter; descendant of Hornher (horn, army).

A manufacturer of horn. In London the horners and bottle-makers form one Company. Horn was anciently applied to many uses for which glass and other materials are at present employed. "Horns," says Fuller, "are a commodity not to be slighted, seeing I cannot call to mind any other substance so hard that it will not break; so solid that it will hold liquor within it; and yet so clear that light will pass through it. No mechanical trade but hath some utensils made thereof; and even now I recruit my pen with ink from a vessel of the same. Yea, it is useful cap-a-pie, from combs to shoeing-horns. What shall I speak of many gardens made of horns to garnish houses? I mean artificial flowers of all colours. And besides what is spent in England, many thousand weight are shaven down into leaves for lanthorns, and sent over daily into France.

Gaufridus Le Cornier Norm. 1180-95. Roger le Corneor, 1198 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae). John le Corner, Matilda le Hornere, Engl. c. 1272 (Rotuli Hundredorum).

From the Swedish, Horner; a personal name.

Horner: a maker of cups and other articles out of horn also of children’s horn-books and lanterns glazed with horn. In the “Franklin’s Tale,” descriptive of winter, it is said: “James sits by the fire with double berd And drinketh of the bugle horn the wine.”

This refers to the double use of the bugle. It had a metal plug to stop the mouthpiece, so as, if required, to serve as a drinking horn. In the second part of “Henry VI.” we have Thomas Horner, an armourer, showing that the man had drifted into another profession from that which furnished him with his surname.

Horner is a characteristic Yorkshire name. The Horners, a family of York merchants in the 17th century, on three occasions held the office of lord mayor of that city (D.). Nicholas Horner, a Roman Catholic of Grantley, preferred death to the abandonment of his religion in 1589; the Rev. John Horner was curate of Masham in 1696 (P.). The Horners are still found in York.