Spear (surname)

Spear is a surname deriving from Middle and Old English spere ("spear"), variously intending a spearman, a spearmaker, or a person considered tall and thin in a manner reminiscent of a spear.^[1]

Notable people with the surname include:

• Albert Spear (1852–1929), justice on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and President of the Maine Senate
• Allan Spear (1937–2008), American politician and educator from Minnesota
• Arthur Spear (1883–1946), English footballer
• Arthur Prince Spear (1879–1959), American painter
• Bernard Spear (1919–2003), English actor
• Bob Spear (1920–2014), founding director of the Birds of Vermont Museum, naturalist, birdwatcher and master woodcarver
• Burning Spear (born 1945), Jamaican roots rock reggae artist
• Catherine Swan Brown Spear (1813–1903), American reformer, educator, and abolitionist
• Charles Spear (1803–1863), American Universalist minister
• Chloe Spear (c. 1749–1815), African freedwoman and diarist
• Clay V. Spear (1913–1974), associate justice of the Idaho Supreme Court
• Duston Spear, American artist
• Ellis Spear (1834–1917), officer in the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment who rose to the rank of general during the American Civil War
• Eric Spear (1908–1966), English composer of film music
• Francis Spear (1902–1979), English stained glass artist and lithographer
• Frederick Gordon Spear (1895–1980), British physician and researcher
• Harry Spear (1921–2006), American child actor
• Jeff Spear (born 1988), American sabre fencer
• John Murray Spear (1804–1887), American Spiritualist preacher
• John Spear (1848–1921), British Liberal Unionist politician
• Joseph Spear (d. 1837), British naval officer
• Karl Spear (1910–1981), American college football coach
• Laurinda Hope Spear (born 1950), American architect and landscape architect
• Lawrence York Spear (1870–1950), American naval officer and businessman
• Margaret Jane Spear, American politician
• Mary Spear (1913–2006), English cricketer
• Matt Spear (born 1970), American soccer coach
• Moncrieff J. Spear (1921–2016), American diplomat
• Mónica Spear (1984–2014), Miss Venezuela 2004
• Nikola Špear (1944–2017), Yugoslavian tennis player
• Patricia G. Spear (born 1942), American virologist
• Percival Spear (1901–1982) British historian of colonial and modern South Asia
• Richard E. Spear (born 1940), American art historian and professor
• Robert Spear, various people
• Roberta Spear (1948–2003), American poet
• Roger Ruskin Spear (born 1943), British musician and artist, founding member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
• Ruskin Spear (1911–1990), British artist
• Samuel P. Spear (1815–1875), American soldier in the Seminole, Mexican–American War, and American Civil Wars
• Steven J. Spear (born 1965), American researcher and author
• Terry Spear, award-winning American author
• Timothy L. Spear, Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly
• Tom Spear (1919–1968), Australian rules footballer
• Tony Spear, American space exploration project manager
• Walter Eric Spear (1921–2008), German physicist
• William T. Spear (1834–1913), U.S. Republican politician
• Winston Spear (born 1965), Canadian stand-up comedian and actor