Taliaferro ( ), also spelled Talliaferro, Tagliaferro, Talifero, or Taliferro and sometimes anglicised to Tellifero, Tolliver or Toliver, is a prominent family in eastern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The Taliaferros (originally , which means "ironcutter" in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

) are one of the early families who settled in Virginia in the 17th century. They migrated from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where an ancestor had served as a musician in the court of

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

. The surname in that line is believed to trace back to Bartholomew Taliaferro, a native of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

and subject of the Duke of Venice, who settled in London and was made a denizen in 1562. Taliaferro coat of arms as drawn by Thomas Jefferson

The origins of the Taliaferro name were of interest to

George Wythe George Wythe (; December 3, 1726 – June 8, 1806) was an American academic, scholar and judge who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The first of the seven signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence from ...

, a Virginia colonial lawyer and classical scholar, who had married Elizabeth Taliaferro, the daughter of Richard Taliaferro. Wythe urged his former student and friend

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

to investigate the name when Jefferson traveled to Italy. Jefferson later reported to Wythe that he had found two families of the name in

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

, and that the family was of Italian origin. Jefferson enclosed his sketch of the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

of the Tagliaferro family as reported to him by a friend in Florence, Italy.

Etymology

Unknown to Jefferson, Taliaferro appears to arise due to a transcription error and a variation of the Italian surname Tagliaferro, which is, even today, widespread in Italy especially in Lombardy, but it also has representation in the Bolognese, Florentine, and Lazio regions. The name Tagliaferro, less common, has families in Vicenza, Gorizia, in the province of Rome and in Campania. A slight variation, Tagliafierro, is also typical of the Campania region, Caserta in particular. From the etymological point of view, the term tagliaferro indicates a soldier skilled in piercing the opponent or the shield of the adversary with his weapons, which cleave/slice medieval armor, such as with a stroke of ax or sword. In reality, these surnames may also derive from the medieval name Tagliaferro, that is, the Italianization of the French name Taillefer, made famous by the chivalric epic (the name Tagliaferro, on the other hand, is also mentioned in the eighteenth-century drama

La Cecchina ''La buona figliuola'' (''The Good-Natured Girl'' or ''The Accomplish'd Maid''), or ''La Cecchina'' (The girl from Cecchina), is an opera buffa in three acts by Niccolò Piccinni. The libretto, by Carlo Goldoni, is based on Samuel Richardson's no ...

, by

Niccolò Piccinni Niccolò Piccinni (; 16 January 1728 – 7 May 1800) was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly th ...

).Rossoni, Ettore, L'Origine dei Cognomi Italiani, Storia ed Etimologia, Melegnano, (2014), p. 3034

People with the name

Given name

It is the

first name First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

of the following persons: * Taliaferro Clark, a doctor during the

Tuskegee Syphilis Study The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male (informally referred to as the Tuskegee Experiment or Tuskegee Syphilis Study) was a study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Cente ...

* Toliver Craig, Jr., representative in the

Kentucky General Assembly The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives. The General Assembly meets annually in ...

* Toliver Craig, Sr. (first called Taliaferro Craig), 18th-century frontiersman and militia officer * Taliaferro Preston Shaffner, 19th-century self-proclaimed colonel, inventor and publisher

Middle name

It is the

middle name In various cultures, a middle name is a portion of a personal name that is written between the person's first given name and their surname. A middle name is often abbreviated and is then called middle initial or just initial. A person may be ...

of the following persons: *

William Close William Taliaferro Close (June 7, 1924 – January 15, 2009) was an American surgeon who played a major role in stemming a 1976 outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire, the first major outbreak of the viral hemorrhagic fever in Central Africa, a ...

(William Taliaferro Close), late surgeon who worked in Africa, father of actress Glenn Close * Robert M. T. Hunter (Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter), U.S. Senator and Confederate Secretary of State *

Booker T. Jones Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. (born November 12, 1944) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known art ...

(Booker Taliaferro Jones, Jr.), musician, composer, frontman for Booker T. and the MGs * Sam Rayburn (Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn), 20th-century Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives * John T. Thompson (John Taliaferro Thompson), early 20th-century U.S. Army officer who invented Thompson submachine gun * Booker T. Washington (Booker Taliaferro Washington), postbellum African-American political leader, educator, orator, author, and ex-slave

Surname

It is the surname of the following persons:

Taliaferro

* Adam Taliaferro, college football player severely injured during a game * Al Taliaferro, comic-strip artist * Benjamin Taliaferro, early 19th-century U.S. Representative from Georgia *

Chris Taliaferro Chris Taliaferro is a Democratic Alderman representing the 29th ward of the city of Chicago. The 29th ward includes the Austin, Montclare and Galewood areas. Aldermanic career Taliaferro was elected alderman in 2015, unseating incumbent Debor ...

, Chicago alderman * Edith Taliaferro, actress *

George Taliaferro George Taliaferro (January 8, 1927 – October 8, 2018) was a professional American football player who was the first African American drafted by a National Football League (NFL) team. Beginning his football career at Indiana University for the ...

, NFL player * Gabriëlle Andrée Iglesias Velayos y Taliaferro, garden designer and landscape architect * Hardin E. Taliaferro, humorist and Baptist preacher *

James G. Taliaferro James Govan Taliaferro (September 28, 1798 – October 13, 1876) was a lawyer, newspaper publisher, and judge in Louisiana. In 1860 he owned 27 slaves and a plantation valued at $87,000. As the secession movement grew he remained a staunch Unioni ...

, 19th-century lawyer, newspaper publisher, and judge in Louisiana * James P. Taliaferro, early 20th-century U.S. Senator from Florida * John Taliaferro, antebellum U.S. Representative from Virginia *

Lawrence Taliaferro Lawrence Taliaferro ( ; February 28, 1794 – January 22, 1871) was a United States Army officer who served as an Indian agent at Fort Snelling, Minnesota from 1820 through 1839. He was also part of the famous African American slave Dred Scott's s ...

, United States frontier agent *

Lorenzo Taliaferro Lorenzo Taliaferro (December 23, 1991December 16, 2020) was an American professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Lackawanna College and Coastal Carolina and was dr ...

, former running back for the Baltimore Ravens * Mabel Taliaferro, actress *

Ray Taliaferro Raphael Vincent "Ray" Taliaferro (February 7, 1939 – November or December 2018) was an American radio host and liberal political commentator. He joined KGO News Talk AM 810 (San Francisco) in 1977. In 1986, his talk show moved to the 1 to 5 a ...

, radio host * Richard Taliaferro, colonial architect in Williamsburg, Virginia * R. Catesby Taliaferro, philosopher and mathematician *

Walter R. Taliaferro Walter Robertson Taliaferro (September 9, 1880 – October 11, 1915) was a pioneer aviator in the U.S. Army who died in a flying accident. After his first and last "loop the loop" in a Curtiss tractor biplane, the plane suddenly dove into S ...

, pioneer U.S. Army aviator * William B. Taliaferro, Confederate States of America general

Tolliver/Toliver

Anthony Tolliver Anthony Lamar Tolliver (born June 1, 1985) is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Creighton Bluejays, and played 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 11 different franchis ...

, basketball player *

Billy Joe Tolliver Billy Joe Tolliver (born February 7, 1966) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL) for twelve seasons with the San Diego Chargers, Atlanta ...

, football player * Charles Tolliver, musician and composer * David Tolliver, singer/songwriter/producer * Don Toliver, American rapper * Melba Tolliver, journalist * Mose Tolliver, primitive artist

Places

Camp Taliaferro Camp Taliaferro was a World War I flight-training center run under the direction of the Air Service, United States Army in the Fort Worth, Texas, area. Camp Taliaferro had an administration center near what is now the Will Rogers Memorial Cen ...

, San Diego, CA, Named for US Army pilot Walter R. Taliaferro *

, Texas, United States, named for Walter R. Taliaferro *

T. C. Taliaferro House The T. C. Taliaferro House (also known as the Paul T. Ward House) is a historic home in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida. It is located at 305 South Hyde Park. It was built by architects Grable, Weber & Groves in the Classical Revival style in t ...

, Florida, United States *

Taliaferro County, Georgia Taliaferro County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,559, down from the 2010 census when the population was 1,717, making it the least populous county in Georgia and the second-le ...

, United States, named for Benjamin Taliaferro * Willis Hall, formerly known as Taliaferro Hall,

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III ...

, Virginia, United States * Taliaferro Hall,

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

, College Park, Maryland, United States, Named for Thomas Hardy Taliaferro. Dean/College of Engineering; Dean/College of Arts and Sciences

Fictional characters

Tulliver

* Maggie Tulliver, in George Eliot's classic novel, ''

The Mill on the Floss ''The Mill on the Floss'' is a novel by George Eliot, first published in three volumes in 1860 by William Blackwood. The first American edition was published by Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York. Plot summary Spanning a period of 10 to ...

'', a dark-complexioned miller's daughter

Tagliaferro

* Roy Tagliaferro, an alias of the serial killer

Red John Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

, in ''The Mentalist''

Taliaferro

* Paul Taliaferro, a character in David Weber and Steve White's science-fiction novel '' The Shiva Option'' (2002) * Peachey Taliaferro Carnehan, a character in Rudyard Kipling's short story "

The Man Who Would Be King "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888) is a story by Rudyard Kipling about two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. The story was first published in '' The Phantom Rickshaw and other E ...

" (1888) * Penelope Taliaferro Russell, secretary to John Joseph Bonforte in Robert A. Heinlein's '' Double Star'' (1956) **In Heinlein's ''

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls ''The Cat Who Walks Through Walls'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1985. Like many of his later novels, it features Lazarus Long and Jubal Harshaw as supporting characters. Plot summary A writer s ...

'' (1985), two secret agents prepare to meet a person who uses a codename which sounds like Tolliver. One of the agents suggests that the spelling might be Taliaferro, and recites the name's convoluted etymology for the other agent. * Roderick Taliaferro, the title character in George Cram Cook's first novel, ''Roderick Taliaferro: A Story of Maximilian's Empire'' (1903), with illustrations by Seymour M. Stone

Tolliver

* Tolliver Groat, Junior Postman, later Senior Postman and Postal Inspector in Ankh-Morpork, the fictional capital of Discworld * Tolliver Lang, the stepbrother of the protagonist of ''The Harper Connelly Mysteries'' * Ben Tolliver, a recurring character in the '' Gunsmoke'' radio and television series and the protagonist of the episode, "Ben Tolliver's Stud" (ep. 206×11 on television and ep. 166(46) on radio) * Crane Tolliver, a character played by

Wiley Harker James "Wiley" Harker (January 27, 1915 – May 1, 2007) was an American character actor who portrayed Crane Tolliver in the soap opera ''General Hospital'' in 1983. He also played Justice Harold Webb in ''First Monday in October'' (1981). He als ...

on the ABC soap opera '' General Hospital'' * Cy Tolliver, a character played by

Powers Boothe Powers Allen Boothe (June 1, 1948 – May 14, 2017) was an American actor. He won an Emmy in 1980 for his portrayal of Jim Jones in '' Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones''. He also played saloon owner Cy Tolliver on '' Deadwood'', "C ...

on HBO's '' Deadwood'' TV series *

Jeffrey Tolliver Karin Slaughter (born January 6, 1971) is an American crime writer. She has written 21 novels, which have sold more than 40 million copies and have been published in 120 countries. Her first novel, ''Blindsighted'' (2001), was published in 27 la ...

, a recurring character in crime writer

Karin Slaughter Karin Slaughter (born January 6, 1971) is an American crime writer. She has written 21 novels, which have sold more than 40 million copies and have been published in 120 countries. Her first novel, ''Blindsighted'' (2001), was published in 27 l ...

's Grant County series * June Tolliver, the "girl" in John Fox, Jr.'s romance/Western novel, ''The Trail of the Lonesome Pine'' (1908) * Lorenzo "Guts" Tolliver, protagonist of Jabari Asim's novel ''Only the Strong'' (May 12, 2015) * Michael Tolliver, a gardener, who is a recurring character in

Armistead Maupin Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr. ( ) (born May 13, 1944) is an American writer notable for '' Tales of the City'', a series of novels set in San Francisco. Early life Maupin was born in Washington, D.C., to Diana Jane (Barton) and Armistead Jones Ma ...

Tales of the City ''Tales of the City'' is a series of nine novels written by American author Armistead Maupin from 1978 to 2014, depicting the life of a group of friends in San Francisco, many of whom are LGBT. The stories from ''Tales'' were originally serial ...

series * Morton Tolliver, a character in Christopher Kenworthy's ''Dead or Alive: A Wild West Omnibus'' novel, of the Western Adventure Omnibus * Pendleton Tolliver, a fictional character in Ted Bell's short story "The Powder Monkey", compiled in the anthology ''Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night'' * Steven Tolliver, owner of a sailing ship line in Cecil B. DeMille's film ''

Reap the Wild Wind ''Reap the Wild Wind'' is a 1942 American adventure film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Ray Milland, John Wayne, and Paulette Goddard, with a supporting cast featuring Raymond Massey, Robert Preston, Lynne Overman, Sus ...

'' (1942) *

Toby Tolliver Toby Tolliver was a character in the "Toby and Susie Show," a long-running act in early 20th-century American theatrical tent shows. Toby was largely a Midwest product. His prototype is found everywhere in America, but is most closely identified ...

, a character in early 20th-century American theatrical tent shows * Jim Tolliver, fictional undercover Bureau of Investigation agent who pursues Ennoch “Nucky” Thompson and Eli Thompson in Season 4, Boardwalk Empire. He claims to be from Cedar Rapids, Iowa; his true name is revealed, along with details that he previously served in Army Intelligence in World War I and that his brother was a vice admiralty lawyer in Washington D.C. Jim Tolliver attended law school with J. Edgar Hoover, whom he perceived as a rival.

References

{{surname American people of Italian descent American people of English descent English people of Italian descent First Families of Virginia Surnames de:Taliaferro fr:Taliaferro it:Taliaferro ru:Taliaferro

Etymology

People with the name

Given name

Middle name

Surname

Taliaferro

Tolliver/Toliver

Places

Fictional characters

Tulliver

Tagliaferro

Taliaferro

Tolliver

See also

References