Porter Name Origin, Meaning and Family History

Porter Name Meaning: An occupational name for a gatekeeper (either a walled town, walled city, monastery, castle, etc).

From the Old French \"portier\", PORTER is an occupational name for a gatekeeper (either a walled town, walled city, monastery, castle, etc). Those who were given the position of porter were also usually given accomodation and privileges.

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Surname Distribution

Census frequency by county

Name Concentrations Within England and Wales

Porter Surname Statistics


Top Professions for the Porter family

Profession Census Frequency
School 2,709
Farm Labourer 263
Private Means 226
General Labourer 199
Labourer 148
None 148
General Servant (domestic) 146
Cotton Weaver 129
Farmer 124
Dressmaker 113
Coal Miner Hewer 110
Domestic Servant 109
Clerk 106
At School 90
At Home 89
House Keeper 79
Dress Maker 77
Scholar 73
Carpenter 69
Cook (domestic) 69
Bricklayer 67
House Painter 66
Housekeeper 66
Laundress 62
Shop Assistant 55

Porter Surname Variants Ranking

Rank Surname Match Census Frequency
1 Porter 100% 153,311
2 Prater 67% 2,928
3 Parter 83% 2,242
4 Portor 83% 999
5 Preater 57% 872
6 Peartree 50% 768
7 Priter 67% 191
8 Proter 67% 191
9 Perter 83% 183
10 Portter 86% 107
11 Preator 43% 102

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The surname Porter is the most popular version of all its varients

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