This surname of English origin is an occupational name for a driver of horses or oxen attached to a cart or plough, or of loose cattle, deriving from the Middle English agent derivative of the Old English pre 7th Century "drifan" "to drive". The surname dates back to the late 13th Century, (see below). Further recordings include one Gilbert le Drivere (1283) "The Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk", and John le Drivere (1300) "The Writs of Parliament". Variations in the idiom of the spelling include Dryver, Drivers, etc.. One George Dryver married Johan Jones on July 29th 1550 at St. Leonard Eastcheap, London. John Driver married Alice Edwardes on June 16th 1563 at St. Jame's, Clerkenwell, London. One James Driver, an emigrant to the New World sailed from London aboard the Alexander bound for the Barbados, on May 2nd 1635. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alice le Driveres, which was dated 1279, in the "The Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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