Family name origins & meanings
- North German and English : voiced variant of Low German, Middle English prikke ‘piercing tool’ (from Dutch prikken ‘to pierce or prick’), hence a metonymic occupational name for someone who used such a tool (e.g. for cutting peat, catching eels, or indeed tattooing), or in the case of the English name possibly for a maker or user of pointed weapons.
- German : from an old personal name of uncertain origin.