Where the Turner name comes from

A turner made small things on a lathe, out of wood, metal or bone, and the word comes through the Old French tornier from the Latin tornus, a lathe, which the Greeks called a tornos. The surname came out of Normandy and into England with the conquest, the earliest spelling on record being Warner le Turnur in 1180, with Ralph le Turner following late in the same century. It ranks 28th in the United Kingdom. Two rarer Turners sit alongside the lathe: the Old French tournoieur, somebody who ran or fought in a tournament, and Turnhare, a runner quick enough to outpace a hare.