"Mercier" Surname Meaning and Origin

The Mercier surname is occupational in origin, meaning trader, merchant, or draper, from the Old French mercier (Latin mercarius). The name usually referred to an individual who dealt in costly fabrics, especially silks and velvets.

Mercier is the 25th most common surname in France, and is essentially the French version of the English surname MERCER.

Alternate Surname Spellings: MERSIER, LEMERCIER, MERCHER, MERCHIER, MERCHEZ, MERCHIE, MERCHIERS

Surname Origin: French

Where in the World Do People with the MERCIER Surname Live?

According to surname distribution data from Forebears, Mercier is the 5,531st most common surname in the world but ranks as the 32nd most common surname in France, 185th in Canada, 236th in Haiti and 305th in Luxembourg. WorldNames PublicProfiler indicates that within the borders of France, Mercier is most common in the Poitou-Charentes region of France, followed by Centre, Franche-Comté, Pays-de-la-Loire, and Picardie.

Geopatronyme, which includes surname distribution maps for different periods of French history, has the Mercier surname as most common in Paris, followed by the northern departments of Nord, Pas de Calais, and Aisne for the period between 1891 and 1915. The general distribution holds for more recent decades, although Mercier was more common in Nord between 1966 and 1990 than it was in Paris.

Famous People with the MERCIER Last Name

• Michèle Mercier - French actress
• Honoré Mercier - Canadian lawyer, journalist, and politician
• Paul Mercier - jeweler and watchmaker; co-founder of the Swiss luxury watchmaking company Baume & Mercier 
• Auguste Mercier - French general involved in the Dreyfus affair
• Louis-Sébastien Mercier - French writer
• Emile Mercier - Australian cartoonist

Sources

Cottle, Basil. Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967.

Dorward, David. Scottish Surnames. Collins Celtic (Pocket edition), 1998.

Fucilla, Joseph. Our Italian Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003.

Hanks, Patrick, and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989.

Hanks, Patrick. Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003.

Reaney, P.H. A Dictionary of English Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1997.

Smith, Elsdon C. American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.