Family name origins & meanings
- English : occupational name for a white-leather dresser, from Middle English whit ‘white’ + taw(i)er ‘tawer’ (from an agent derivative of Middle English taw(en) ‘to prepare’).
- John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92), poet and active opponent of slavery, was descended from Thomas Whittier, who came to MA from England in 1638.
