The surname Dummer is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is one of the earliest recorded locational surnames. It derives from the place in Hampshire where Dummers were Lords of the Manor, called Dummer, which is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Dummere", and in the Hampshire Pipe Rolls of 1196 as "Dunmere". The placename means "the lake or mere on or by a hill or down", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "dun", hill, down, mountain, and "mere", lake, mere, although there is no lake at this location nowadays.
Variations: Dummere, Dumper, Dumer, Dumere, Domer, Dommer. Sometimes misspelled as Drummer.
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