Kaspar

This is a surname, which in over one hundred different spellings, is recorded throughout Europe. These spellings derive from the base forms of Caspar and Kaspar and include Caspar, Kaspar, (German), Gaspard (French), Jaspar, Jesper, and Jasper (English), Casperrri, Gasperro, Gasparro, Parri, and Sperro, (Italian), Kaspar, Kasparek, (Czech), Kaszer, Kaszon, Kaspazak, Kasprowicz (Polish), Kasparov, Kasperovich (Belorussian), and many others. However spelt the origination is from an eraly Persian word of ancient times 'kaspur' meaning 'treasurer', the name being given by tradition to one of the three wise men who attended the birth of Christ. The others being Balthasar and Melchior. In Europe most names of this type are often today referred to as Christian names, and were introduced as first names by Crusaders and other pilgrims to the Holy Land, in the period of the religious revival of Christianity in the 12th century. These names later developed into surnames in their own right, and are now found as patronymics, diminutives and in a few cases habitational. The 'Crusader' connection applies to this surname. The first recording of the surname would seem to be that of Johan Caspar, of Schaffhausen in Germany, in 1441, whilst in England for instance, an early surviving recording is that of Mary Jesper, at the church of St Mary Aldermary, in the city of London, in 1672.