Dick Family History
Dick Name Meaning
English and Scottish: from the Middle English and Older Scots personal name Dick also found as Dike and Deke pet forms of Rick (see Richard ). Although found in every part of Britain the form Dick is especially common in Scotland and it was from there in the 17th century that the surname was taken to northern Ireland and thence to North America. English: variant of Dyke . German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname from Middle High German dic(ke) ‘thick strong stout’ or in the case of the Jewish name from German dick or Yiddish dik ‘fat’. German: topographic name for someone who lived by a thicket or patch of thick undergrowth from Middle High German dicke a special use of dic(ke) ‘thick’. North German: from a pet form of the personal name Dietrich . Flemish and Dutch: either from a pet form of the personal name Diederik (a cognate of German Dietrich ; compare 5 above) or a nickname for a corpulent person from Middle Dutch dick ‘fat’ (compare 3 above). In North America this surname is also an altered form of the much more common Dutch variant Dik.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
