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Surname Etymology and Meaning of MONK

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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.

Greek, ?? Welsh, mon, sole, separate, alone; Gaelic, moanach. A man who retires from the ordinary concerns of the world, and devotes himself to religion.

Source: An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on their Derivation and Import (1857).

1. English: nickname for someone of monkish habits or appearance, or an occupational name for a servant employed at a monastery, from Middle English munk, monk ‘monk’ (Old English munuc, munec, from Late Latin monachus, Greek monakhos ‘solitary’, a derivative of monos ‘alone’).
2. North German (Mönk) and Dutch: equivalent of 1, from Middle Low German monik, Middle Dutch moni(n)c, mun(i)c.
3. Irish: translation of Gaelic Ó Muineaog (see Minogue) or Ó Manacháin (see Monahan).
4. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name for a miller or flour merchant, from Polish maka ‘flour’, ‘meal’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)