Taylor is a surname

Surname

A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...

 in the English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 which originated as an occupational surname in England The name is derived from the Old French

Old French

Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...

 tailleur, which is in turn derived from the Late Latin

Late Latin

Late Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin...

 taliator, from taliare meaning "to cut". The first historical evidence of the surname dates to the County of Somerset, South West England

South West England

South West England is one of the regions of England defined by the Government of the United Kingdom for statistical and other purposes. It is the largest such region in area, covering and comprising Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. ...

 in 1182, and was first mentioned in Scottish records circa 1276. According to the UK National Trust surname profiler, Taylor is the fifth most common surname in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. It is also common in other English speaking countries (especially Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 where it was the tenth most frequently encountered surname in the 2000 US Census.), but has a low incidence in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 where it is mostly concentrated in the North

Ulster

Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

. The popularity of the surname has swelled by its adoption as an Americanized form of many other surnames from Europe, many of which are common among Ashkenazic Jews; examples of such names are: Schneider

Schneider (surname)

Schneider is a very common family name in Germany. Alternate spellings include: Schnieder , Snyder, Snider, Sneider, Sneijder , Schnyder, Schnider , Sznajder and Znaider .-People:*Alexander Schneider, classical...

, Szabó

Szabó

Szabó is a common Hungarian surname . Here is the list of prominent people with last name Szabó or Szabo:* Attila Szabó – Hungarian decathlete* Bence Szabó – fencer...

, and Portnov.

Taylor as a given name

Taylor

Taylor (given name)

Taylor is a given name derived from the English occupational surname Taylor. The surname took its meaning from the Middle English word tailor, meaning "one who cuts cloth."...

has been a common masculine

Masculine

Masculine or masculinity, normally refer to qualities positively associated with men.Masculine may also refer to:*Masculine , a grammatical gender*Masculine cadence, a final chord occurring on a strong beat in music...

 given name

Given name

A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...

 since the 19th century, and common feminine given name since the late 1970s in English language countries.