Family name origins & meanings
- French : status name from Old French vasseor, a short form of vavasour, a term of the feudal system for a tenant ranking immediately below a baron. Such a tenant would have been a prosperous man, and the surname may have been used for someone in his service more often than for the man himself. The term is probably derived from medieval Latin vassus vassorum ‘vassal of vassals’, i.e. vassal-in-chief.