This surname is derived from an occupation. -From the Olde French, tailleur, a cutter of cloth. It is now understood that tailor shall be the trade-name, and Taylor and Tayler the surname. The early rolls are full of instances, and as a result Taylor is the fourth commonest patronymic in England, giving precedence only to Smith, Jones, and Williams. The Hundred Rolls (1273) have the following variations: Taillar, Taillour, Taillur, Tailur, Taliur, Taliur, Tallyur, Talur, Talyur, Tayler, Tayllour, Tayllur, Taylour, and Taylur.

Henry le Taliur, Norfolk, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Cecil le Tayllour, Cambridgeshire ibid.

Roger le Taylur, Lincolnshire, ibid.

Richard le Taylor, Northamptonshire, ibid.

1593. Baptised — Abel, s. John Tailor: St. Peter, Cornhill.

1700. Witnesses to marriage, Elizabeth Tayfar, Richard Tayler: St. George, Hanover Square.

1802. Married — Robert Julian and Mary Taylar: ibid.

From the occupation of 'tailor,' a cutter-out of cloth, ME. taillour AF. taillour, OF. tailleur, 'the cutter, from OF. tailler, 'to cut.' in Latin documents rendered cissor. A very common name in early Scots records. Alexander le Tayllur was valet of Alexander m in 1276 (Bain, II, 76). John le Taillur held the mill of Selkirk as firmar, 1292 (Rot. Scot., I, p. 80), and Brice le Taillur was one of the Scottish prisoners taken at the capture of Dunbar Castle, 1296 (Bain, II, 742). Six persons of this name in the counties of Roxburgh, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Lanark, and Angus rendered homage, 1296 (Bain, II). John Cissor was tenant of Balgirdane in the barony of Buittle, Adam Cissor in barony of Newlands, and Andrew Cissor in the vill of Preston, 1376 (RHM, I, p. lx, lxi II, p. 16). Johannes Cissor in the parish of Fyvy was excommunicated, 1384 (REA., I, p. 165). William Scissor held a tenement in Edinburgh, 1392 (Egidii, p. 27), and Walter Cissor had grant of half the land of Glorat from David II (RMS, I, App. II, 1137, 1183). Alexander Scissorus, 'armigerus meus, 1344 (REA, I, p. 75). Donald Scissor and Bricius Scissor were witnesses in Inverness, 1462 (Invernessiana, p. 141), and Arthur Scissor in Perth, 1463, is mentioned in same year as Arthur Tailzoure (Milne, p. 52, 53). A grave slab in Dundee records "hic iacet Joannes filivs Philippi Cissoris," with a pair of scissors and a bodkin (Jervise, Memorials, p. 29). The Toillear dubh na tuaighe (Black tailor of the battle-axe) is a semi-legendary figure in Cameron traditions. Tailer 1649, Tailleur 1296, Taillor 1408, Tailliovr 1608, Tailliour 1588, Taillur 1296, Taillyer and Taillyeor 1655, Taillzier 1660, Tailyeour 1593, Tailzieor and Tailhieour 1662, Talyeor 1694, Talyhour 1453, Talyowr 1430, Talzeor 1655. Talzeour 1493, Talzior 1494, Talzour 1540, Talzoure 1467, Tayliour 1661, Tayllur 1296, Taylyhour 1430, Taylyour 1419, Taylowre 1688, Taylzowr 1525, Telvour 1534, Thailzor 1472, Thalzeour 1484, Tyllour 1720. In many instances an Anglicizing of Macintaylor, which see.

(Anglo-French-Latin) Tailor [Middle English toylo(u)r, tayler, etc., Old French tailleor (French tailleur), prop. cutter; French tailler, to cut; Latin talea, a cutting] This name was Latinized Parmentarius.

Some foolish knave (I thinke) at first began The slander that three Taylers are one man; When many a Taylers boy I know hath beene Hath made tall men much fearefull fo be seene.—John Taylor, Workes (1630), iii. 73.

(English) One who made outer garments, a tailor.

The well-known trade-sartor. The commonness of the occupation has led to the frequency of the surname, which, according to the XVI. Report of the Regist. Gen., 1856, stands fourth in the list of the most common family names in England and Wales, giving precedence only to Smith, Jones, and Williams. Allowing for the great preponderance of the Joneses and Williamses in Wales, where surnames are so few, Taylor may fairly challenge the right of standing next to Smith for numerosity in England, the state of the poll for births, deaths, and marriages, within a given short period, being —

A name of trade. We find this name modified to Tayleure, the orthography having been changed by the bearers to hide what they thought the lowness of its origin. So Smith is changed to Smyth, Turner to Turnour, etc.—as Camden says, "Mollified ridiculously lest their bearers should seem villified by them."

A Mr. Taylor, who, from this false pride, had changed his name to Tayleure, once haughtily demanding of a farmer the name of his dog, the man replied, "Why, sir, his proper name is Jowler, but since he's a consequential kind of puppy, we calls him Jouleure!"

Matthew, Geoffry, William, Lambert, Ralph, Hugo, Ansketel Telarius, Normandy 1180-95 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae); Richard and Walter Telarius, Engl. 1202 (Rotulus Cancellarii). The name in England no doubt comprised Normans. Bishop Jeremy Taylor was a descendant.

Taylor. —Distributed all over England, but comparatively scarce in all the south coast counties, excluding Kent. In the English counties, near and on the Scottish border, it is also relatively infrequent, yet it extends in fair numbers across the border, and is found over most of Scotland. In Wales it is rare or absent. Its principal homes in England are to be found in the great industrial counties of Lancashire, Derbyshire, Notts, and Warwickshire, and in the West Riding. It is also numerous in Lincolnshire. Six centuries ago this surname occurred in various forms, as Taylir, Taylur, Tayllour, etc. (Hundred Rolls).

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.