What is the meaning of the surname Spiller?

Question

My dad once told me our last name is Dutch for lawyer.

Answer 1

SPILLER

1) English: occupational name for a tumbler or jester, from an agent derivative of Middle English spill(en) ‘to play, jest, or sport’ (Old English spilian).
2) English: nickname for a destructive or wasteful person, from an agent derivative of the homonymous Middle English spill(en) ‘to spoil, waste, or squander’ (Old English spillan).
3) German and Dutch: occupational name for a spindle maker, a variant of Spille** with the addition of the agent suffix -er.
4) May be from German or Yiddish - "Spieler" (="player", etc.; same meaning as #1)

**SPILLE
German and Dutch: metonymic occupational name for a spindle maker, from Middle High German spinnel, spindel, spille, Middle Low German spinele, spille; Middle Dutch spille ‘spindle’. In some cases, the surname may have arisen from a nickname for a very thin person or someone with spindly legs.

IOW, if it's Dutch, it looks like it most likely had to do with weaving (spindle making)... or pehaps with entertainment (jester)
---------------------------------

OR perhaps it was a variant of "Speller" --

SPELLER

"1. English and South German: occupational name for a reciter, from an agent derivative of Middle English spell(en), Middle High German spellen ‘to tell or relate’. In the case of the English surname there has probably been some confusion with Spiller."

"3. Variant of Spiller."

Thus we'd be looking at a "reciter"of poetry, someone who told tales whether news or just 'a good story' (spel(l) = news/tale, cf. Old English "godspel(l)" = 'good news'), something like a minstrel. This brings us back to another sort of person who informed and/or entertained the court (which may help explain the spiller/speller confusion). Compare all this to the French "jongeleur" (from which we get "juggler", but also related to "joke/jocular") -- who entertained by various means, including reciting,singing, acting & juggling, as well as the trouvère/troubador.


In short, someone with the name Spiller/Spieler/Speller might be "one who entertained the court by telling tales and by other antics. " I'll leave you to decide whether that is an apt description of a lawyer.