Mawer has sometimes been described as a British occupational surname related to another British surname "Mower". However there is no reliable citation or clear origin for this. One argument against a speculated connection with the name "Mower" is that in the days when clerks (amanuenses) wrote what they heard from the illiterate public, they differentiated between Mawer and Mower, i.e. they were probably pronounced differently, even in areas where the same dialect was spoken.
Another possibility worth researching is that "Mawer" is an Anglicised spelling of Mauer, a fairly common German surname, meaning "wall". If that were indeed the origin of "Mawer", it would explain both the differentiated pronunciation, and the Anglicised spelling.
The surname Mawer may refer to:
- Allen Mawer (1879–1942), English philologist
- Barbara Mawer (1936–2006), British scientist
- Catherine Mawer (1803–1877), British architectural sculptor
- Charles Mawer (born 1839), British architectural sculptor
- Gary Mawer (born 1969), Irish sprint canoer
- June Knox-Mawer (1930–2006), British writer
- Philip Mawer (born 1947), British civil servant
- Robert Mawer (1807–1854), British architectural sculptor
- Shaun Mawer (1959–2010), British football player
- Simon Mawer (born 1948), British author
Anglicisation refers to the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influence of English culture and business on other countries outside England or the United Kingdom, including their media, cuisine, popular culture, technology, business practices, laws, or political systems.
Cochrane is a surname with multiple independent origins, two Scottish and one Irish. One of the Scottish names derives from a place in Scotland; the Irish surname and the other Scottish surname are both anglicisations of surnames from the Irish language and Scottish Gaelic respectively.
Bowring is a surname of English origin. At the time of the British Census of 1881, its relative frequency was highest in Dorset, followed by Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Hampshire, Surrey, the Channel Islands, Shropshire and Somerset.
Lynam or Lynham is a surname of Irish origin. It is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name Ó Laigheanáin, which means "someone from Laigin" or Leinster, which was named after a tribe that inhabited the area. Related names include Leaneagh, Laighneach, and Lynagh. Lynam may refer to:
Orr is a surname common throughout the English-speaking world, but especially in Scotland, Ulster, the United States, Canada, and northern England. The name is considered to have numerous origins: such as being derived from an Old Norse byname; a Gaelic nickname; and an Old English topographical name, or similar place-name.
Paterson is a Scottish and Irish surname meaning "Fathers' son" or "son of Patrick". In Connacht, and Ulster, the name is considered to be an Anglicised form of the Irish language surname Ó Casáin. Paterson is rarely used as a given name. There are other spellings, including Patterson. Notable people with the surname include:
Butt is a German and an English surname whose origins lie in the South West peninsula region of England.
Downie or Downey is a surname. There appears to be a number of sources of the Downie/Downey surname in Scotland and Ireland, with the intermittent mix in Ulster. The spelling of the surname as Downie is almost unique to Scotland with minor instances in Northern Ireland (Antrim). The following information on the origins of the name are taken from.
Garvey and O'Garvey are Irish surnames, derived from the Gaelic Ó Gairbhith, also spelt Ó Gairbheith, meaning "descendant of Gairbhith". Gairbhith itself means "rough peace".
McCawley and MacCawley are surnames in the English language. The names are Anglicisations of several Gaelic-language surnames. There are several etymological origins for the names: all of which originated as patronyms in several Gaelic languages—Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Although the English-language surnames are ultimately derived from Gaelic patronyms, the English-language surnames, and the modern Gaelic-language forms do not refer to the actual name of the bearer's father or grandfather. The surnames are not very common.
Kneale is a surname of Manx origin. The name is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic Mac Néill, meaning "son of Niall".
Fay is a surname that arose independently in France and Ireland. There are different theories about the origin and meaning of the surname.
Scriver is an occupational surname of German origin, which means a "scribe" or "writer." Alternative spellings include Schriver and Shriver. The name may refer to:
Poland is an Irish surname that has been Anglicised from MacPoìlin. Outside of Ireland, it can be of English and German origin.
Youds is an English surname originally from the Wirral peninsula, historically part of Cheshire.
Floyd is a surname of Welsh origin, deriving from Lloyd, which is ultimately an anglicized spelling of "Llwyd", and of Scottish origin deriving from Flood. Notable people with this surname include:
Gaw is a surname with at least four different origins. First, it may be derived from the Gaelic word gall meaning "foreigner" or "stranger". The surnames Gall and Gaul are derived from the same word. In Brittany it became a surname for immigrants from France, in Lincolnshire for Bretons, in Perthshire and Aberdeen for Lowlanders. Second, it may have originated by shortening the name McGaw, which is an Anglicised form of Mag Ádaimh meaning "son of Adam". Third, it may be an old spelling of the German surname Gau, which originated as a toponymic surname; see Gau (territory). Finally, it may be an Anglicisation of the Southern Min pronunciation of the Chinese surname pronounced Wú in Mandarin; this spelling came into use in Hong Kong by a family of Chinese immigrants from Myanmar.
Robert Mawer was an architectural sculptor, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. He specialised in the Gothic Revival and Neoclassical styles. He created the Neoclassical keystone heads on St George's Hall, Bradford and on Moorland's House, Leeds, and was working on the keystone heads at Leeds Town Hall when he died. He was a founding member of the Mawer Group of Leeds architectural sculptors, which included his wife, Catherine Mawer, his son Charles Mawer, and his apprentices William Ingle, Matthew Taylor and Benjamin Payler, who all became sculptors with their own careers. Many of the buildings enhanced with sculpture by Robert Mawer are now listed by Historic England.
Catherine Mawer was an architectural sculptor who worked alongside her husband Robert Mawer, then following his death in 1854 she ran the family stone yard as a master sculptor at Great George Street, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, until 1859. The other master sculptor in her 1854–1859 company, which was known as Mrs Mawer, was her nephew William Ingle who supervised the stone yard and onsite works from 1854. Her apprentices were Matthew Taylor, Benjamin Payler, and her son Charles Mawer. All the apprentices later had independent careers as sculptors. After her son came of age in 1870, she continued working alongside Charles and her nephew William in the partnership Mawer and Ingle at the same address. Catherine was a founder member of the Mawer Group, which comprised all of the above Leeds architectural sculptors. During her lifetime, the Mawer group produced some strongly lifelike and often unflattering portraits, full of movement, including portraits of men with overhanging moustaches and cavernous mouths. These portraits continued after the deaths of Robert Mawer and William Ingle, but stopped appearing at her death in 1877. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that this style of work was her own.
William Ingle was an architectural sculptor in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. He specialised in delicately undercut bas relief and small stand-alone stone sculptures of natural and imaginary flora and fauna on churches and on civic, commercial and domestic buildings. He was apprenticed to his uncle Robert Mawer. After Mawer's death in 1854 he worked in partnership with his aunt Catherine Mawer and his cousin Charles Mawer in the company Mawer and Ingle. Notable works by Ingle exist on Leeds Town Hall, Endcliffe Hall, Sheffield and Moorlands House, Leeds. He sometimes exhibited gentle humour in his ecclesiastical work, such as faces peering through greenery, and mischievous humour on secular buildings, such as comic rabbits and frogs among foliage. He died of tuberculosis at age 41 years, having suffered the disease for two years.
