Pick

Recorded in several forms including Pick, Pix, Picke, and the patronymics Picks, Pickes, Pickess and Pickiss, this is an English surname. It may have derived from a number of various origins. First mentioned in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, the derivations are thought to be from the Olde English word "pic", meaning a point, 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", the Latin "picus", meaning 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 the top 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, Prudence Pix christened at St Olave, Southwark, on July 4th 1718, and Mary Ann Pickess, who married Alexander Hamilton at St James church, westminster, on March 3rd 1828. Andrew Picke of Great Dalby, aged 34 years, who embarked from Plymouth for St. Christopher's in the Barbadoes in February 1633, and was one of the earliest settlers in the New World. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.