Hake

Recorded as Hake and Hakes, this is an English surname, but one of early Scandinavian origins. It is well recorded in the eastern counties of England, those areas under pre 9th century Danish Viking influence. It derives from the Danish word 'hake', meaning a hook, and may have been originally used as a nickname for a person with an interesting profile, or alternatively, as an occupational name for a merchant or trader. The ultimate derivation is probably from the German word 'hoken', which had the early meaning of 'to carry things about (on one's back)'. The English word 'hawker' comes from a medieval adaptation of this term. The following examples illustrate the name development following the Norman Conquest of 1066 (see below) and include Leuiua Filia Hacke in the Assize Rolls of the city of London in the year 1214, Gilbert Hake in the tax rolls known as the Feet of Fines for the county of Suffolk in 1257, and Robert Hakkes of Norfolk in 1375. A much later examples in the surving church registers of the city of London was that of John Hake who was christened on March 19th 1757 at St. Christopher le Stocks. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Turkil Hako,. This was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book of Norfolk, during the reign of King William 1st of England and known as 'The Conqueror', 1066-1087. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.