Shapiro, and its variations such as Shapira, Schapiro, Schapira, Sapir, Sapira, Spira, Spiro, Sapiro, Szapiro/Szpiro in Polish and Chapiro in French (more at "See also"), is a Jewish Ashkenazi surname.
The surname is derived from Spira, the medieval name of Speyer in Germany;[1][2][3] compare with Spire, the French name for that city.
Other name variants based on the city name "Spira" include Spira, Spire, Spiro, Spear, Szpir, Szpiro, Spero, Sapir, Sapiro, Chapiro and Sprai.
[4] The Jewish community of Speyer was one of three leading cities central to the development of Ashkenazi culture, referred to as the ShUM-cities, an acronym based on the names of the cities of Speyer/Spira, Worms and Mainz.
The family name Speyer (based on the modern German name for the same city) has also become a well-known surname that was spread by Jews from Frankfurt to England, the United States and Canada in the late 19th and early 20th century.