Taliaferro (/ˈtɒlɪvər/ TOL-i-vər), also spelled Tagliaferro, Talifero, Tellifero or Taliferro and sometimes anglicised to Tolliver or Toliver, is a prominent family in eastern Virginia and Maryland. The Taliaferros (originally Tagliaferro, [ˌtaʎʎaˈfɛrro], which means "ironcutter" in Italian) are one of the early families who settled in Virginia in the 17th century. They migrated from London, where an ancestor had served as a musician in the court of Queen Elizabeth I. The surname in that line is believed to trace back to Bartholomew Taliaferro, a native of Venice who settled in London and was made a denizen in 1562.
The origins of the Taliaferro name were of interest to George Wythe, a Virginia colonial lawyer and classical scholar, who had married a Taliaferro. Wythe urged his former student and friend Thomas Jefferson 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, and that the family was of Italian origin. Jefferson enclosed his sketch of the coat of arms of the Tagliaferro family as reported to him by a friend in Florence, Italy.
It is the surname of the following persons:
Adam Taliaferro, American college football player severely injured during a game
Al Taliaferro, American comic-strip artist
Benjamin Taliaferro, early 19th-century U.S. Representative from Georgia
Charles Taliaferro, American philosopher
Edith Taliaferro, American actress
George Taliaferro, American football player
Hardin E. Taliaferro, American humorist and Baptist preacher
James Taliaferro, early 20th-century U.S. Senator from Florida
John Taliaferro, antebellum U.S. Representative from Virginia
Lawrence Taliaferro, United States frontier agent
Lorenzo Taliaferro, running back for the Baltimore Ravens
Mabel Taliaferro, American actress
Ray Taliaferro, American radio host
Richard Taliaferro, colonial architect in Williamsburg, Virginia
R. Catesby Taliaferro, American philosopher and mathematician
Walter R. Taliaferro, pioneer U.S. Army aviator
William B. Taliaferro, Confederate States of America general
Kay Toliver, American teacher
Anthony Tolliver, American basketball player
Billy Joe Tolliver, American football player
Charles Tolliver, American musician and composer
Lisa Tolliver, American academic-practitioner and media personality
Melba Tolliver, American journalist
Mose Tolliver, American primitive artist
It is the middle name of the following persons:
William Taliaferro Close, late surgeon who worked in Africa, father of actress Glenn Close
Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, U.S. Senator and Confederate Secretary of State
Booker Taliaferro Jones, Jr., musician, composer, frontman for Booker T. and the MGs
Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn, 20th-century Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
John Taliaferro Thompson, early 20th-century U.S. Army officer who invented Thompson submachine gun
Booker Taliaferro Washington, postbellum African-American political leader, educator, orator, author, and ex-slave
It is the first name of the following persons:
Toliver Craig, Jr., representative in the Kentucky General Assembly
Toliver Craig, Sr. (first called Taliaferro Craig), 18th-century American frontiersman and militia officer
Camp Taliaferro, Texas, United States, named for Walter R. Taliaferro
T. C. Taliaferro House, Florida, United States
Taliaferro County, Georgia, United States, named for Benjamin Taliaferro
Taliaferro Hall, College of William and Mary, Virginia, United States
Taliaferro Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States, Named for Thomas Hardy Taliaferro. Dean/College of Engineering; Dean/College of Arts and Sciences
Tagliaferro
Roy Tagliaferro, an alias of serial killer Red John, 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" (1888)
Penelope Taliaferro Russell, secretary to John Joseph Bonforte in Robert A. Heinlein's Double Star (1956)
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
Toliver
Gray Toliver, a character in the 2006 cozy mystery Murder in Exile (Frank Cole Mysteries, Book 1) by Henry V. O'Neil (the pseudonym Vincent H. O'Neil), winner of the 2005 St. Martin’s Press "Malice Domestic" Writing Competition for Best First Traditional Mystery Novel
Tolliver
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 on the ABC soap opera General Hospital
Cy Tolliver, a character played by Powers Boothe on HBO's Deadwood TV series
Dan Tolliver, a desperado in J.R. Roberts' Western novel, Tolliver's Deputies (The Gunsmith, #153)
Jeffrey Tolliver, a recurring character in crime writer Karin Slaughter's Grant County series
June Tolliver, the "girl" in John Fox, Jr.'s romance/Western novel, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1908)
Kenny "Captain Peacock" Tolliver, a character in Sara M. Barton's Miz Scarlet and the Vanishing Visitor (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery, #2), published in September 2013 on Smashwords
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's Tales of the City series
Mister Tolliver, a Genesis comics character
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 (1942)
Timothy Tolliver, protagonist of Aaron Shepard's children's book Timothy Tolliver and the Bully Basher (2014), distributed by Amazon Digital Services (ASIN B004I1KRTQ)
Toby Tolliver, a character in early 20th-century American theatrical tent shows
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
Tolliver's Camp, a community in the Old West novel Fighting Mad by Hank Madison (the pseudonym of Donald S. Rowland), published by Endeavour Press' Western imprint, Pioneering Press
Tolliver's Deputies (The Gunsmith, #153), a Western novel by J.R. Roberts
Taliaferro (apple), an apple cultivar grown by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello
