Beck Family History

English: topographic name for someone who lived beside a stream from northern Middle English bekke ‘stream’ (Old Norse bekkr). English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of various places in northern France named Bec, for example Bec Hellouin in Eure, named with Old Norman French bec ‘stream’ from the same Old Norse root as in 1 above.

English: from the Middle English personal name Becke (Old English Becca or Beocca) of uncertain origin. English: probably a nickname for someone with a prominent nose from Middle English bek, bekke ‘beak (of a bird)’ (Old French bec).

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a baker, a cognate of Becker, from (older) South German beck, West Yiddish bek ‘baker’. 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.

The German surname is also found in France (mainly Alsace and Lorraine), Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, and Croatia. Compare Bek. North German and Dutch: topographic name for someone who lived by a stream from Low German beke, Dutch beck ‘stream’. Compare the High German form Bach and Dutch Bek.

Danish and Norwegian: habitational name from a farmstead named Bekk, Bæk, or Bäck, from Old Norse bekkr ‘stream, brook’, denoting a farm by a stream. Swedish: variant of Bäck (see Back). This surname may also be of German origin (see above). Americanized or Germanized form of Polish, Rusyn, Czech, Croatian, or Slovenian Bek, in the last two languages a cognate of the German name in 5 above.