from Middle English hauek ‘hawk’,
applied as a metonymic occupational name for a hawker (see
Hawker), a name denoting a tenant who held land in return for
providing hawks for his lord, or a nickname for someone supposedly
resembling a hawk. There was an Old English personal name (originally
a byname) H(e)afoc ‘hawk’, which persisted into the early
Middle English period as a personal name and may therefore also be a
source.
topographic name for someone who lived in an isolated
nook, from Middle English halke (derived from Old English
halh + the diminutive suffix -oc), or a habitational
name from some minor place named with this word, such as Halke in
Sheldwich, Kent.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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