Origins of the DEXTER surname
While “dexter” derives from Latin and means “on the right hand side,” the word appears to be unrelated to the surname DEXTER. The best available evidence indicates that the surname DEXTER derives from “dyster,” an occupational name in the British Midlands for a dyer of wool. (In other parts of England, most notably in the south, the occupational name was “dyer.”)
The highest concentrations of the surname are in the Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire border areas, with significant clusters in other areas, including Rutland and Norfolk. Exploring the origins of these clusters and their relationship to one another has been one of the purposes of our study since 2003.
In addition to DEXTERs originating in England, many Dutch immigrants to America with the surname DYKSTRA (meaning “dike-builder”) anglicized their surnames to DEXTER. (And perhaps some Dutch immigrants to Great Britain did the same.) At this point we are not collecting data on DEXTERs known to be derived from the Dutch DYKSTRA.
There are several variations to the name DEXTER – most notably, DEXSTER, DESTER, DEXTOR, DIXTOR. DESTER, a surname variant of DEXTER, has its origins almost exclusively in Warwickshire. We are uncertain at this time whether the other variants are distinct names or merely misspellings.