This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Malger' or 'Mauger.' The modern form is imitative. The font-name was fairly popular in the 13th century. Mauger is found as a single personal name in the Hundred Rolls (ii. 609, and again ii. 797). For other instances, v. Mauger.

Thomas fil. Mager, Lincolnshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Walter Mauger, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Richard Malgor, Buckinghamshire, ibid.

Mauger de la Neuland, Close Rolls, 31 Henry VI.

I find no evidence to prove that Major as a surname is the Latin major, i.e. mayor, a town magistrate (v. Mair). The present military major is modern from a surname point of view.

1561. Baptised — Robert, s. John Maygor: St. Mary Aldermary.

1577. — Alice, d. William Mager: St. Peter, Cornhill.

1742. Married — Robert Major and Elizabeth Davis: St. George's Chapel, Mayfair.

As an Irish surname Major is seldom found outside Ulster, and there mainly in the north-eastern counties of Antrim, Down and Armagh, though in the eighteenth century there were some families of the name in counties Donegal and Derry also. It is a name of some note in England (see D.N.B.). Its earlier forms are Mauger and Mayger, derived not from the Latin major but from the Old-French maugier or old-German madalgar, meaning council-spear.* It occurs as Major in Connacht as early as 1287, when John Major was Archdeacon of Tuam, but it does not appear to have become established in Ireland until the seventeenth century, when we find it as an English “titulado” in the Derry section of the “census” of 1659 and also in the Monaghan hearth money rolls. One such entry is of interest because the occupant of a holding in the parish of Tedavnet was returned as James Major in 1663 and as James Meares in 1665; similarly the English philosopher John Major (d. 1550) was also called John Mair.

However the equation of Meares with Major (assuming that these entries refer to the same person) may be a clerical error, for confusion in the entry of surnames in these rolls is not infrequent. Meares is 5 normally a Clare name, Ó Meidhir or Ó Midhir in Irish. (see Meere infra) *I make this statement on the authority of Reaney. Weekley gives the Teutonic name from which it is derived as Maethelgaer, maethel meaning an assembly.

(Latin) Greater, Bigger [Latin major, comp. of magnus] Cp. Mayor

Though occasionally on record in Ireland in the middle ages this English name was not established in Ireland until the seventeenth century: it is now found in most of the Ulster counties. SIF 108

(English) The larger man.

An officer next in rank above a captain.

Warin, Ralph, Robert Major, Normandy, 1198 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae); William Mair, Engl. c. 1272; William Maior, Normandy, 1180-95 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae); William le Magere, Engl. c. 1272 (Rotuli Hundredorum).

From the French, Major, Mége; a personal name.