Gernier

This interesting surname is of early medieval English origin, and has three possible sources. Firstly, the surname may be topographical for someone who lived near a barn or granary, or a metonymic occupational name for someone who was in charge of the storehouse for corn, the granary, from the Anglo-Norman French "gerner", granary (Old French "gernier", from the Late Latin "granarium", a derivative of "granum", grain, corn). William del Gerner is noted in the 1332 Subsidy Rolls of Lancashire. Secondly, it may be from a central Old French form of a Germanic personal name composed of the elements "war(in)", guard, and "heri, hari", army. The given name was introduced into England by the Normans during the Conquest of 1066 in the form "Warnier" or "Garnier". The third source is a contracted variant from the English occupational name "Gardener", which was normally given to a cultivator of edible produce in an orchard or kitchen garden, rather than to a tender of ornamental lawns and flower beds. In the modern idiom the surname has many variant spellings ranging from Gorner, Garner, Gerner and Guerner, to Gornar, Gurner, Guarnier and Gernier. Margret Gurner married Robarte Stasy on May 8th 1608, at St. Andrew's, Enfield, London. The Coat of Arms most associated with the family depicts a silver sword in bend sinister, point downwards, between a silver fleur-de-lis in chief and an oak branch acorned silver in base, all on an azure shield, the Crest being a red griffins head between two silver wings, charged with a torteau. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Geoffrey Gerner, which was dated 1272, in the "Feet of Fines of Essex", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.