From Wikipedia: Shapiro, and its variations such as Shapira, Schapiro, Schapira, Sapir, Sapira, Spira, Sapiro, Spiro/Spyro (in Greek), Szapiro/Szpiro (in Polish) and Chapiro (in French), is a Jewish Ashkenazi surname.
The surname is derived from the medieval name of Speyer, Germany, compare Spire, the French name for that city. ... 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. 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. Some suggest that the surname derives from the Aramaic word (Aramaic: שפירא) meaning "handsome".
