Taylor

Where the name comes from

• English (from Anglo-Norman French)
  tailor
  Middle English and Anglo-Norman taillour, 'tailor'; Old French tailleor, from tailler, 'to cut'; Late Latin taliare, 'to split, cut'
  Taylor started as a job name for a tailor. Records show it as a surname more than 800 years ago. The older French word literally meant 'a cutter.' In Old French it could also mean a stonemason. It became a first name much later and is now given to both girls and boys.
• French (in North America)
  owner of farmland (for the French surname Terrien)
  French Terrien, and related forms like Therrien and Terrian
  In some North American families, the surname Taylor is an Americanized form of the French surname Terrien. This explains some family lines. It is not the source of the first name.
• Irish
  the cutter, the tailor
  Irish Táilliúir, from Norman 'le Tailleur'
  Táilliúir is the Irish form of the surname. It traces back to an old Norman family that settled in Dublin. Most Irish Taylors, however, descend from later immigrants.

Taylor across traditions

• United States popularity (SSA). Peak decade was the 1990s, when Taylor was the #9 girls' name of the decade. It reached #6 for girls in the mid-1990s.
• American family names. In North America, the surname Taylor took in 'tailor' surnames from other languages. Many of these are also common among Ashkenazi Jews, such as German Schneider and Hungarian Szabo. Taylor is also a very common surname among African Americans.
• Spanish and Catalan. Spanish has no form of the name Taylor. The surname that means the same thing is Sastre, a Catalan and Spanish job name meaning 'tailor.' It comes from Latin sartor.
• Popular meanings. Meanings found online, such as 'clothed with salvation,' have no support in name dictionaries. The documented meaning is 'tailor.'

Who carried it

• Taylor Caldwell (1900–1985): Very popular American novelist known for her family sagas and historical fiction. She wrote as 'Taylor Caldwell.'
• Zachary Taylor (1784–1850): The 12th president of the United States. He carried Taylor as a surname.
• Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011): American film actress. She carried Taylor as a surname.
• Taylor Swift (born 1989): American singer-songwriter and the best-known person with Taylor as a first name today.

Forms in other languages

Tailor, Tayler, Taylour, Tayloe, Táilliúir

Taylor in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.