The surname Taylor is an occupational name from the trade we today spell as tailor. The name derives from the Middle English word ‘tayler’ or ‘tailor’. Through the centuries the convention has gradually been established that the surname is spelt with a ‘y’ and the name for the trade is spelt with an ‘i’-though this is not invariably the case. The Middle English word comes originally from the Old French word ‘tailleur’, meaning ‘cutter’. This Old French source has given rise to several types of ‘cutter’. The best-known one has given us the surname Talboys, which has nothing to do with youth or height. This comes from the Old French ‘taillebois’, which means ‘cutter of wood’.

The surname Taylor is thus of Norman origin and came to England with William the Conqueror. Incidentally, it also gave the lie to the exclusiveness of Norman names. Taylor does not sound as Norman as, say, the more numerically exclusive de la Tour, but it is just as old and just as French.

There are several well-known variations on the most usual spelling-Taylor. They range through Tailer, Tayler or Taylour to Taylorson and Taylerson.

References to the surname Taylor start appearing in the records from the twelfth century on. One of the earliest of these is in the Pipe Rolls for Somerset. In the records for the year 1182 one William le.Taillur appears. Here the Norman origin and the occupational derivation are well illustrated.

Donald P. Taylor of Sage, California, circumnavigated the globe in the smallest aircraft so far. He built the plane in his garage, all 20 ft 11 in (6.38 m) of it. The single 180 hp Thorp T-18 engine completed the journey in 37 stages, taking a total of 176 flying hours.

Scottish dramatist Tom Taylor adapted over 100 works for the stage. One of them, Our American Cousin, was the play Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated.

In 1948 Sir William Francis Kyffin Taylor became, at 93, the oldest person ever raised to the peerage.

Thespian Joseph Taylor was an Englishman mentioned in Shakespeare’s First Folio as one of the 26 actors who took principal parts in all those plays. Legend has it that the Bard himself coached Taylor in the role of Hamlet.

The Taylor Standard Series is the method used to discover which characteristics of a ship’s hull govern its water resistance. Its inventor, David Watson Taylor, became a rear admiral in the US Navy and designed the first plane to fly the Atlantic (1919).

Coventry-born Edward Taylor (d. 1729) is considered to be colonial America’s finest poet but, at his request, the best of his verse was not published until over 200 years after his death.

British mathematician Brook Taylor (1685—1731) is noted for his great contributions to the development of calculus-he postulated ‘Taylor’s Theorem’.

John Henry Taylor (1871—1963) was one of ‘the great triumvirate’ (with Harry Vardon and James Braid) which won the British Open (golf) Championship 16 times between 1894 and 1914 (Taylor won five times). Later he was a founder and the first chairman of the British Professional Golfers’ Association.

A.J.P. Taylor (b. 1906), prolific English historian, wrote the celebrated study Origins of the Second World War which is considered the definitive work on the subject.

There are no Taylor-related places or major geographic features in the United Kingdom. Canada has a town called Taylor. The United States has 10 such towns as well as 5 Taylorsvilles, a Taylors, a Taylor Bridge and a Taylor Springs. South Africa boasts a town called Tayler’s Pan while New Zealand has one delightfully named Taylor’s Mistake. Virtually all of the fore­going, except the UK, have other geographic features named Taylor.

With about 371,000 namesakes Taylor is the 5th most popular surname in England and Wales. There are over 25,000 Taylors in Scotland where it is 14th in popularity. Taylor is notably popular in and around Manchester where an estimated one in about 115 families bears the name. In descending numerical order Birmingham, Bradford and Leeds are other Taylor strongholds. Around the world Taylors are most common in Wellington (one in 249 families), Auckland (one in 270) and Sydney (one in 305). The United States has more Taylors than the entire populations of Liverpool and Portsmouth combined-an estimated total of just under 731,000 makes this their 12th most popular surname.