Heck Family History

English: topographic name for someone who lived by a gate or ‘hatch’ (especially one leading into a forest), northern Middle English heck (Old English hæcc), or a habitational name from Great Heck in North Yorkshire, which is named with this word. Compare Hatch. German: topographic name from Middle High German hecke, hegge ‘hedge’. This name is common in southern Germany and the Rhineland. Possibly an Americanized spelling of French Hec(q), a topographic name from Old French hec ‘gate’, ‘barrier’, ‘fence’ (compare 1), or a habitational name from a place named with this word. Shortened form of the Dutch surname van (den) Hecke, a habitational name from any of several places called ten Hekke in the Belgian provinces of East and West Flanders.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press