This interesting name is of medieval English origin and is a dialectal of the locational or topographical name Coombe, itself from any of the numerous places named with the Old English pre 7th Century "cumb", denoting a short, straight valley. There are a large number of places in England, mostly spelled Combe, generally found in the south West, for example Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire and Surrey, and this surname may have any of these places as its source, or perhaps a dweller in a "Cumb".
In the modern idiom the variants include "Co(u)mbe", Coom, Co(o)mb(e)s, Colmer, Cumber(s), Comer and Co(o)m(b)er. Amongst the sample recordings in Devon is the marriage between Mary Ann Coomber and John Pasmore on November 5th 1778, at Chittlehampton, and the christening of Philip Coombere on October 22nd 1780, at Stoke Fleming.The Coat of Arms most associated with the family has the blazon of a green shield, on a fesse between three gold eagles displayed, as many keys upwards in black. The crest being a squirrel sejant holding in the paws a key, with the motto; Persevere. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William le Combere (witness), which was dated 1260, in the "Assize Rolls of Cambridgeshire", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
The origin, the coat of arms or the different heraldic shields, and the bibliography in which the surname comber is mentioned are part of this exciting investigation.
The list of countries with a higher presence of people with the surname comber provides us with a perspective on the history of the surname, beyond its origins, focusing on its migrations.
For those like you, who are interested in the history hidden behind the surname comber, it is essential to find all kinds of information, both direct and tangential, that helps to construct a solid narrative of how the birth and expansion of comber developed.
We keep our website updated through our own research and also thanks to contributions from people like you, after verification; so if you have information about comber and send it to us, we will update it on this website.
Sadly, not all the contributions of those who bore the surname comber were recorded by the chroniclers of the time.
The origin, history, coat of arms or different coats of arms, and the heraldry of comber are recorded in a wide variety of sources and documents that are essential to know for better compilation.
These sources are essential for initiating the understanding of comber, and at the same time, of surnames in general.