Family name origins & meanings
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : metonymic occupational name for a cutler, from Middle High German mezzer ‘knife’, from Old High German mezzirahs, mezzisahs, a compound of maz ‘food’, ‘meat’ + sahs ‘knife’, ‘sword’. The Jewish name is from German Messer ‘knife’ or Yiddish meser.
- German : occupational name for an official in charge of measuring the dues paid in kind by tenants, from an agent derivative of Middle High German mezzen ‘to measure’.
- English and Scottish : occupational name for someone who kept watch over harvested crops, Middle English, Older Scots mess(i)er, from Old French messier (see Messier).