Origin of the Name Pitcher

by Walter M. Everton

The name of PITCHER was, in many cases, of Anglo-French origin and derived from the French PITCHER or PICHIER, “platal forms of PIQUIER, supposedly meaning “Pike-man.” It is known that in other cases the name was a corruption of PICHARD or PICARD, which name was originally applied to one from Picardy, France. According to one writer on the Origin of surnames, “the commonest forms was PICHARD, and of this PITCHER Is doubtless an imitative corruption.” Another writer mentions a will, dated 1551, in which the testator, one John PYCHARD, mentions his uncle, William PYTCHER, also referred to as PITCHARD, and his wife, Alice PYTCHARD. Among the many variant spellings of the name are PICHER, PICHARD, PICHAR, PYCHARD, PYCHER, PYTCHARD, PYTCHER, PITCHARD, PITCHAR, and PITCHER, of which the last form is frequently in evidence in America in modern times.

Among the earliest definite records of the name in England are those of Roger filius (son of) PICHARD, who was living in the year 1155; Alan and Walter PICHARD, of Yorkshire, in the year 1273; Nicholas PICHARD, of Shropshire, in 1273.  Roger PICHARD, of Cambridgeshire, in the same year; and John PICHER and Gilbert PYCHER, of Somersetshire, in the year 1327.

The above statement by the Media Research Bureau, indicates some of the probable origins of the PITCHER name and also that there were probably many men in various parts of England and elsewhere who were not related, yet each adopted the name PITCHER in one of its forms.