Quick

This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and has a number of possible interpretations. The first of these is from the Old English pre 7th Century word "cwic", Middle English "quik", alive, lively, given originally as a nickname to an agile or lively person. Secondly, the surname may be topographical in origin, given to someone who lived by a kind of vegetation named from the Old English "cwic", lively, such as couch grass, known as "cwice" in Old English; the aspen (tree), which has leaves that tremble as if they were alive, known as "cwictreow"; or the poplar tree, widely used to make quickset hedges, the "cwicbeam" in Old English. A third meaning from the modern surname found as Quick and Quicke, is also topographical, for someone who lived at an outlying dairy farm, from the Old English "cu", cow, and "wic", outlying settlement. Finally, the name may be Cornish in origin, a topographical for someone who lived in a wood, from the Cornish word "gwyk", wood. The marriage of John Quick and Martha Ware was recorded at Harefield, London, on September 23rd 1637. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Afwardus de Quike, which was dated 1179, The Yorkshire Pipe Rolls, during the reign of King Henry 11, "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. 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.