4,966 Global DIVER Family Members

DIVER Family History

Unlike many apparently obvious surnames, this interesting and quite rare example, actually reflects what it means. It is either a nickname for a good swimmer from the pre 8th century Norse Viking "dyfa" or it can be locational and describe a former inhabitant of the town of Dives in Calvados, France. The forms of the name are usually Diver(s), Dive(s), and Divver, and the recorded spellings are now so intermixed, it is usually impossible to say which name today relates to which origin. Oddly the first recording is clearly locational (see below) from the town, whilst the first recording in the Norse-English, which should have predated the Norman locational origin by several centuries does not appear until 1252 when Robert Dyvere is recorded at Ramsey Abbey, Suffolk.