Is this your surname? Why not share this page on Facebook

Surname Etymology and Meaning of HOOK

Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

1. English (southern): from Middle English hoke, Old English hoc ‘hook’, in any of a variety of senses: as a metonymic occupational name for someone who made and sold hooks as agricultural implements or employed them in his work; as a topographic name for someone who lived by a ‘hook’ of land, i.e. the bend of a river or the spur of a hill; or as a nickname (in part a survival of an Old English byname) for someone with a hunched back or a hooked nose. A similar ambiguity of interpretation presents itself in the case of Crook. In some cases the surname may be habitational from any of various places named Hook(e), from this word, as for example in Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey, Wiltshire, and Worcestershire.
2. Swedish (Hö(ö)k): nickname or a metonymic occupational name from hök ‘hawk’, a soldier’s name.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)