Kerker Family History

South German: variant of Kercher (see Karcher), but also from the dialect word Kerker ‘prison’ (Latin carcer), hence a metonymic occupational name for a prison warder or possibly a topographic name. North German: topographic name for someone who lived near a church, from Low German kerke ‘church’, or possibly an occupational name from a reduced form of Low German Kerkener ‘sexton’. Sorbian topographic name for someone living near bushes, from Sorbian kerk ‘bush’, ‘undergrowth’. Dutch: topographic name for someone who lived by a dungeon, Dutch kerker.

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