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According to the 'Dictionary of American Family Names' published by Oxford University Press.
ISBN 0-19-508137-4 :
English: A variant of GEARY.
North German: From a personal name derived from GER, GAR, meaning 'SPEAR.'
Dutch: Reduced form of VAN den GEER, a topographical name from GEER, a'Headland.'
According to my Dutch contacts the name GEER refers to land &/or woods etc.
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Many thanks to Tony Bayfield, Historic Environment Records Officer (Cornwall) for the following:
"...the name GEAR is found all over the county of Cornwall. The origin of the name is the Cornish place-name element 'KER' meaning fort or round, a univallate enclosed settlement dating from the Iron Age/Romano-British period. The Cornish KER can be found in place names such as CAER, GARE, CAR etc. and as a field name GEAR when it usually refers to a field near to or containing a round."
Further discussion on this name can be found in "Cornish Place Name Elements" by O.J.Padel. Published by the English Place Name Society, 1985.
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I have made contact with yet another name variant GURR, who have ancestral links in Sussex and Kent. David Gurr tells me their name means a spear and or warrior, spearman! His family legend says they came over to England with the Norman invasion and conquest.
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Another name origin: This one from a website called http://www.last-names.net
GEER/GEAR: Signifies all sorts of wearing apparel and equipment for horses and men. From the Saxon GEARRIAN, to make ready; and the name was probably given to one who took charge of and super- intended the gear. Example: used in the sense of John of the gear, John O'Gear and later as John Gear.
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Throwing yet more confusion into the pot of probabilities is the name GAER. At the time of the Roman conquest of Britain the indigenous Celts held sacred, among other deities, the Hare, whose name in their language was GAER.
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