Where the Porter name comes from

Porter is an English surname that began as an Old French occupational name. Two separate Old French words stand behind it: portier, a doorman, from porte, meaning door, and portour, a bearer, from porter, to carry. It reached English through Middle English Porter, already in use there as a surname. The earliest public record of the name is from 1086 at Winchester Castle.

The same Middle English name carried on in Yola as Portheare. French borrowed Porter back from English, and treats it as a variant of the surname Portier. Transferred use also made Porter a given name, one whose popularity has risen and fallen.