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Surname Etymology and Meaning of PECK

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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.

1. English (mainly East Anglia): metonymic occupational name for someone who dealt in weights and measures, for example a grain factor, from Middle English pekke ‘peck’ (an old measure of dry goods equivalent to eight quarts or a quarter of a bushel).
2. English: variant of Peak 1.
3. Irish: variant of Peak 2.
4. South German: variant of Beck.
5. North German and Dutch: metonymic occupational name for someone who prepared or sold pitch, from Middle Low German pek, Middle Dutch pec, pic.
6. Dutch: from Middle Dutch pec, pick ‘desperate straits’, hence a nickname for a person in difficult circumstances or perhaps for someone with a gloomy disposition.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)