Sturrock

This unusual name is of Anglo-Scottish in origin, although the origins may not be the same or may overlap. Recorded in a wide range of spellings including Sterick, Sterrick, Sterricks, Stirack, Storach, Storek, and the usual Scottish Sturrock, it is said to be a topographical surname for someone who lived by a high or prominent rock. If so then the name derives from the Olde English pre 7th century word "stan", meaning stone or stony, with "rocc", a rock, to give a meaning of rocky place. There is a place called Starrock Green, near Chipstead, in the county of Kent, where Rocius de Storocke was recorded in 1265, and Roger ate Staurok appears in the Subsidy Rolls of Surrey in 1332. Topographical surnames were among the earliest created, since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided obvious distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages. In Scotland the name may be of the same English origin, or may refer to a keeper of sturrocks, given as being store sheep and cattle. Laurentius Sturrok was a chaplain in Aberdeen in 1448, and Alexander Storrok held a fourth part of the village of Craquhy near Dunnichen in 1509. John Sturrock and Jean Watson were married at St. Andrew's Fife, on July 29th 1697. In London Dorothy Stiracre was christened at St Martins in the Field, Westminster, on February 12th 1709, and Elizabeth Sterrick, the daughter of John Sterrick was christened at St Sepulchre church, on August 26th 1725. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.