Cramer

This interesting surname is of German and Anglo-Saxon, pre 7th century origins. It has been widely throughout Europe in many different spellings including Cramer, Kramer, Kremer, Gramer, Graemer, Grammer, etc. It originates from an ancient word "cram" meaning cream, which has Roman (Latin) antecedents, and is occupational for either a maker or seller of dairy products, or It describes the keeper of a medieval trading post, in the modern parlance - a shop-keeper, or specifically a grocer. The surname is also recorded both in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and as there does not appear to be any Gaelic equivalent word, here again the name probably derives from the same Germanic source. Job descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and later became hereditary. In the "Old Statistical Account (1792)" of the parish of Kirkden in Angus in Scotland, "Cramer's" are described as "persons who go through the parish and neighbourhood and buy butter, hens, eggs, etc., mostly for the Dundee market". Early recordings of the surname from registers include Berhtolt Grammer, in the charters of Rottweil, Germany, in 1282, Gerhard Kremer, who is believed to be the cartographer who invented the "Mercator Projection" on which all maps are based, and John Cramer and Elizabeth Spillre, who on October 12th 1637, were married at the church of St. Mary Somerset, London, in the reign of Charles 1st of England, who was shortly afterwards to lose his head, by execution. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walther der Kramer, which was dated 1272, the ancient rolls and charters of Eblingen, Germany, during the reign of Emperor Rudolf 1st, of the German Empire, 1272 - 1291. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.