Hiscoke

Recorded in many spelling forms including Hiscock, Hiscoke, Hitchcock, Hiscox, the later dialectal Hiscoe, and others, this surname is 14th century 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 chruch registers include: Edward Hiscock, christened at Christ Church, Southwark, London, on July 12th 1674, and Ann Hiscoet, who married George Jenkins at the church of St Albans, Wood Street, city of London, on May 4th 1835. The first recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of William Hichecok, which was dated 1360, in the register known as "A Catalogue of Ancient Deeds", for the county of Dorset. this was during the reign of King Edward 111of England, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. Surnames usually 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", sometimes leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.