Shuker Family History

English (Shropshire) is an occupational name derived from Middle English sifocere, sivekere, or seuker, meaning ‘sieve maker’ or ‘one who sieves (flour).’ This name is a derivative of either Middle English sifoc meaning ‘sieve’ plus -ere, or of Middle English siven, which means ‘to pass through a sieve,’ combined with the rare suffix -kere.

In the evolution of the language, the sequence /seu:/ developed into several variations in early modern English, specifically /sju:/, /su:/, /ʃju:/, and /ʃu:/. This phonetic shift contributed to the name sometimes being realized as Sugar due to voicing of the intervocalic /k/ turning into /g/.

Additionally, the name serves as a nickname derived from Middle English shokere, which translates to ‘robber.’ This, in turn, originates from Old English sceācere.