Petherick Family History

From the Cornish personal name Pedrek, a saint’s name which is often met in the learned form Petrock. Pedrek is patron saint of Padstow (‘parish of Saint Pethericke alias Padistow’ 1596 in Ancient Deeds V A.12950) and Little Petherick (Pedrok minor 1535 in Valor Ecclesiasticus), but examples of the surname are more likely to be relationship names than derived directly from the place-name.

Petherick shows the English dialect change of [d] to [ð] before [r]. It has sometimes, via the rare variant Petterick, been confused with Patrick.