Could English surnames that describe professions originate in different parts of the country at the same time?
Surnames describing professions by definition originated in different parts of the country at the same time! – because anybody with a specific occupation was very likely to become known by it. Some occupations were very common; every village had a Smith, a Thatcher and a Miller, and these were very likely to become surnames. Others, especially “luxury trades” became surnames much less often simply because there were far fewer of them around, e.g. Crowder (professional player of the crwth, a Welsh stringed instrument), Pargeter (someone who created elaborate decorative patterns in plaster on house fronts), or Glazier (in the 13th and 14th centuries when English surnames were developing, only very rich people’s houses and churches – and by no means all churches – had glass in their windows, so there weren’t many glaziers). Some occupational surnames you would expect to find concentrated in a specific area, because the occupation itself was: e.g. pargeting, which is typical of the eastern
