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Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!
You asked for a byname suitable for a 12th century maker of leather headdresses.
We found a great variety of period bynames for makers of headgear. The following list contains all of the English and French terms that we found in the 12th or 13th century. (We included the 13th century bynames in order to round out the rather skimpy 12th century data.) The starred bynames were found in French records; all of the others were recorded in England. [1, 2, 4]
Hat c.1155
le Hattere 1212 'the hatter'
le Wimpler 1183 'a maker of wimples'
Chapelier* 1292 'a maker of hats'
le Chapeler 1249 (An Anglo-Norman form of the same byname.)
le Coyfer 1296 'a maker of coifs'
For a maker of hoods:
Hod c.1115
Hodde 1225
Hood 1230
le Hoder 1220
Hudere 1279
For a maker of caps:
le Capyare 1275
le Cappere 1276
le Capman 1285
le Capier 1285
Capier 1285
Kapman 13th century
>From Old Norman French <capron> and Old French <chaperon>, which
seems to have consisted of a band of material and two 'tails' that
hung down to cover the ears or cheeks; it was worn by men and women
of all degrees.
Caperun 1130
Capron 13th century
Chaperonnier* 1292
The last few terms are derived from French <cale> 'a kind of small cap or headdress'. The Middle English word <calle> and its Northern variant <kelle> seem to have described a woman's close-fitting cap or hair-net. [3]
Kelman 1257
Calle 1275
Cale 1275
Calyer 1275
le Callere 1281
Keller 1296
As you can see, some of these terms are quite general, while others refer to very specific types of headgear. We weren't sure what you meant by 'period leather head-dresses', so we don't know whether any of the specific terms would be suitable.
Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Arval Benicoeur, Zenobia Naphtali, and Margaret Makafee also contributed to this letter. We hope that it is useful; please don't hesitate to ask if you have any further questions.
For the Academy,
Talan Gwynek
[1] Fransson, Gustav, _Middle English Surnames of Occupation, 1100-1350_ ( Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1935).
[2] Geraud, Hercule, _Paris sous Philippe-le-Bel: d'aprés des documents originaux et notamment d'aprés un manuscript contenant le ro^le de la taille imposte sur les habitants de Paris en 1292_ (Paris: Crapelet, 1837). [Here the slash denotes an acute accent over the preceding vowel; similarly, the caret denotes a circumflex over the preceding vowel.]
[3] _The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973).
[4] Reaney, P.H. & R.M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991).