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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : probably for the most part a topographic name for someone who lived near the trunk or stump of a large tree, Middle English stocke (Old English stocc). In some cases the reference may be to a primitive foot-bridge over a stream consisting of a felled tree trunk. Some early examples without prepositions may point to a nickname for a stout, stocky man or a metonymic occupational name for a keeper of punishment stocks.
  • German : from Middle German stoc ‘tree’, ‘tree stump’, hence a topographic name equivalent to 1, but sometimes also a nickname for an impolite or obstinate person.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Stock ‘stick’, ‘pole’.

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