Hercock

Recorded in many spelling forms including Hiscock, Hitchcock, Hiscox, and the later dialectals such as Hercock, Hircock and Hiscoe, this surname is medieval English. It derives from the male given name "Hiche or Hich", itself a pet form of Richard, from the Old German "Ricard", a personal name composed of the elements "ric", power, and "hard", meaning brave and strong. A rare Anglo-Saxon name, "Ricehard", meaning "rule-hard", existed prior to the Conquest, but it was the Normans who popularized the name in England. "Ricard" (without surname) appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, and a Hiche de Sadinton was noted in the Register of the Freement of Leicester, dated 1198. The suffix "cock" was always added to the pet form of the given name, and it indicated 'the pertness of lusty and swaggering youth'. Early examples of the surname development included: Richard Hichecokes of Worcestershire in 1327, John Higecok of Cambridgeshire in the same year, and William Hygecok of Dorset in 1329. Later examples taken from surviving London church registers include: John Hercock at St Botolphs without Aldgate, on November 1st 1630 and his brother Thomas Hercok at the same church on April 3rd 1631, and Edward Hiscock, christened at Christ Church, Southwark, London, on July 12th 1674. The first recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of William Hichecok. This was dated 1360, in the register known as "A Catalogue of Ancient Deeds", for the county of Dorset. Throughout the centuries surnames in every country have continued to "develop", sometimes leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.