Origin of the Post Surname

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Ancestry^[1]

North German, Danish, and Dutch:  topographic name for someone who lived near a post or pole (Middle Low German, Middle Dutch post, from Latin postis), presumably one of some significance, e.g. serving as a landmark or boundary, or a habitational name from any of several places in northern Germany called Post, probably from this word. 

North German: occupational name for a mounted messenger or courier Middle Low German post.

Jewish (Ashkenazic): metonymic occupational name for a mailman, from German Post ‘mail’.Probably an altered spelling of German Pfost.

Wikipedia^[2]

Surname of Low German or Dutch origin.  It can be either toponymic or occupational ("messenger", "courier")


Nederlands Familienamenbank^[3]

1. Occupation nickname for a messenger, a postman or a station master, or a guard, guard, sentry.

2. Living in a 'post', a guard or a post instead of a postal road where the horses were changed, compare the Dutch Post to Princenhage where the horses of the stagecoach from Antwerp to Moerdijk were exchanged.  There may still be taken into account in this regard with a very different sense of post eg foot bridge.

3. Pos or Post is the name of a species. It may be the nickname of a fisherman have been (compare Pos).

4. Post could be like the names Posthumus and Postma which frequently occur in Friesland and may indicate a posthumously born child ie. a child born after the death of the father?

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References

1. Ancestry.com.  Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
2. www.wikipedia.com
3. http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nfb/