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SPEARS Family History

This interesting Anglo-Scottish surname recorded in the spelling forms of Spears, Speers, Speirs, Spiers, and possibly others, is a patronymic form of the surname Spier or Spear. The name is job descriptive, being an official title for a keeper of the Watch, in other words an early policeman. The derivation is either from the pre 10th century Old French "espier" meaning to watch or observe, the word being introduced after the Norman Invasion of 1066, or it may have been a nickname for a hunter or a maker of spears, in which case the derivation is from the Old English pre 7th Century "spere", meaning "to spear"...