Pic

This most interesting surname may have derived from a number of various origins. The surnames mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 are thought to derive from the Olde English "pic", point, pick-axe, which may have denoted a man armed with a "pic", a pikeman, and which also may have the same sense as the corresponding Scandinavian nickname "Pik", given to a tall thin person. Later examples of the surname may derive from the Old French "pic", Latin "picus", a woodpecker, or from the Middle English "pike", a pike, fish. Here the name may have been an occupational name for a seller of fish, or a nickname given to someone who bore some fancied resemblance to a woodpecker. Finally, it may derive from the Olde English "pic", point, in the sense of a hill. Alwinus Pic was mentioned in the Domesday Book of Somerset in 1086, while Robert le Pic was recorded in 1191 in the Pipe Rolls of Wiltshire. Henry Picke was noted in 1221 in the Assize Court Rolls of Worcestershire. The christening of Robert Pick took place at St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, on July 20th 1606. Andrew Picke of Great Dalby, aged 34 yrs., embarked from Plymouth for St. Christopher's in the Barbadoes in February 1633, and was one of the early settlers there. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Aluric Pic, which was dated 1086, The Domesday Book of Devonshire, during the reign of King William 1, known as "William the Conqueror", 1066 - 1087. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.