Hicks

Recorded as Hick, Hicke and the patronymics Hickes, Hicks and Hickson,

this is a famous English medieval surname. Derived from the given name

Richard, this was a personal name that was occasionally found in England

in the pre 10th century, but was mainly popularized as Ricard by the

Norman-French invaders after the Conquest of 1066. However the ulimate

origin is perhaps surprisingly pre 7th century Old German, and it was

then composed of the elements "ric", meaning power, with "hard", brave

or strong. The personal name became a firm favourite amongst the native

population of England after the reign of King Richard 1st, known as

"Lionheart", (1189 - 1199). It was felt by many, erroneously as it

happens, that the king represented Anglo-Saxon values against those of

his brother Prince, and later King John (1199 - 1216). Be that as it

may, the relative success of Richard lead to a major development of his

name into a bewildering number of diminutive and patronymic variants,

which in time became surnames. These include Dick, Dicks, Dickson, and

Dixon, as well as Hick, Hicke, Hicks, Hickson, and Rick, Ricks, and

Rickson. The substitution of "H" as the prime initial resulted from the

early inability of the native English to cope with the Norman

pronunciation of "R", so arguably Hick is English and Rick is French!

Early recordings of the personal name include Richard Hick in the

Subsidy Rolls of Yorkshire in the year 1302, and William Hickys as spelt

in the pipe rolls of Warwickshire in 1309. Amongst the recordings of the

name in church registers of the diocese of the citty of London is that

of the marriage of William Hicks and Margery Allen, at All Hallows

church, London Wall, on July 17th 1559. Throughout the centuries,

surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to

astonishing variants of the original spelling.