Pucker

Recorded in several forms including Puck, Pucke, Pooke, as well as the diminutives Pockett, Pockett, Puckett, the patronymics Pocketts, Pucketts, the definitive Pucker, this intriguing and uncommon name is of early English origins. It derives from the word "poque", meaning a purse or bag, and has at least two possible originations. Firstly it may be a metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of bags, pouches or purses; or secondly, it may be a nickname for someone who habitually carried a distinctive bag or purse. Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and later became hereditary after a son followed a father into thew same line of business. Recordings of the name from various church registers include: the christening of Elizabeth Phocette, at Scotter, Lincolnshire, on May 23rd 1588; the marriage of Nicolas Pucker and Alice Blanckes at St. Botolph's, Cambridge, on May 22nd 1641; and the christening of Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Puckett, at Layham in Suffolk, on August 4th 1674. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Adam Poket, which was dated 1210, in the "Curia Regis Rolls of Cambridgeshire", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. Surnames 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" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.