This interesting surname with variant spellings Sellars, Sellers, Sellors, etc. firstly may be a metonymic occupational name for someone employed in the cellars of a great house or monastery, deriving from the Anglo Norman French "celler" meaning "cellar". Secondly, it may be an occupational name for a saddler, deriving from the Anglo Norman French "seller" meaning "saddler". Thirdly, it may be an occupational name for a tradesman or merchant, from an agent derivative of the Middle English "sell(en)" "to sell" (Old English pre 7th Century "sellan" meaning "to hand over", "deliver"). Finally, it may be a topographical name for someone who lived in a rough hut deriving from the Middle English "selle", Old English pre 7th Century "(ge)sell". The suffix "s" denotes "son of". The surname dates back to the late 11th Century, (see below). Further recordings include one William Sellerarius (1185), "Records of the Templars in England in the 12th Century". London church records include one Dorothie Sellors who married William Boswell on March 17th 1602, at St. Giles, Cripplegate, and Anna, daughter of Thomas Sellers was christened on January 24th 1607, at St. Dunstan's, Stepney. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alriz Sellere, which was dated 1086, in the Inquisitio Eliensis of Cambridgeshire, during the reign of King William 1, known as "The Conqueror", 1066 - 1087. 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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