Family name origins & meanings
- English : from Middle English, Old French sur(ri)gien (from a derivative of Late Latin chirurgia ‘handiwork’), hence an occupational name for a person who performed operations, mostly amputations. Before the advent of anaesthetics, only crude surgery was possible, and the calling was often combined with that of the barber or bath house attendant.
- French : topographic name for someone who lived close to a gushing spring.