Overbeck Family History

North German: topographic name for someone who lived ‘on the other side of the stream’ from Middle Low German over ‘over across’ + beke ‘stream’ or a habitational name from any of several places called Overbeck in Westphalia. Compare Averbeck.

Dutch: variant mostly archaic or Americanized of Overbeek.

Danish and Norwegian: habitational name for a farm name meaning ‘across/above the creek’ (compare 1 above).

English: topographic name apparently from Middle English over ‘upper higher’ or ‘above’ (Old English uferra or ofer) + beck (Old Scandinavian bekkr ‘beck stream’) hence cognate with 1 above.

However, it is very likely that the English surname is extinct and that the modern bearers practically confined to Fulham in 1881 are of Dutch origin (compare 2 above).