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The beck Surname

beck Name Meaning and History

  1. English: topographic name for someone who lived beside a stream, from northern Middle English bekke ‘stream’ (Old Norse bekkr).
  2. English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of various places in northern France, for example Bec Hellouin in Eure, named with Old Norman French bec ‘stream’, from the same Old Norse root as in 1.
  3. English: probably a nickname for someone with a prominent nose, from Middle English beke ‘beak (of a bird)’ (Old French bec).
  4. English: metonymic occupational name for a maker, seller, or user of mattocks or pickaxes, from Old English becca. In some cases the name may represent a survival of an Old English byname derived from this word.
  5. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a baker, a cognate of Baker, from (older) South German beck, West Yiddish bek. Some Jewish bearers of the name claim that it is an acronym of Hebrew ben-kedoshim ‘son of martyrs’, i.e. a name taken by one whose parents had been martyred for being Jews.
  6. North German: topographic name for someone who lived by a stream, from Low German Beke ‘stream’. Compare the High German form Bach 1.
  7. Scandinavian: habitational name for someone from a farmstead named Bekk, Bæk, or Bäck, or a topographic name for someone who lived by a stream.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The beck name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the beck family name as far back in history as possible.

beck Family Facts

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Distribution of beck Families in the US in 1920
Number of beck families
 922-1841
 308-921		 1-307
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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