Hockman
An uncommon surname whose origin is uncertain, though it may be linked to an old Germanic personal name or to a related English form.
The #9,956 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 95,233 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The historical record does not give a secure derivation for Hockman. Nineteenth-century surname writers grouped it with forms such as Homan and Oman, suggesting they saw it as related to a Germanic personal name or name-stem rather than to an occupation or place. The first element may be connected with an old Germanic name element like hoh- or hog-, but the evidence in these excerpts is not strong enough to be certain.
History
The surname appears in older British and American name lists, but the excerpts provided do not trace it to a specific medieval family or region. In modern use it survives chiefly as a rare English-language surname in the United States. Because early etymologists treated it only briefly and inconsistently, its exact pathway into English remains unclear.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century surname glossary listed Hockman alongside Hockey and Hocknell, showing how easily similar-looking surnames were grouped together by early compilers.
From the historical record
“LER, Mead, Beers, Bere, Ales (1685), Goodale, Alesworth, AVines, Goodwine (1658), Potwine, Hockey, Hockman, Negus, Ginn, Porter, Popp, Lunch, Siders, Ceider, Kilcup, Mugridge, Phillpot, Phillimore, Fillmore, Allsupt, Treat, Twohy, Too- HY, TooHEY, Reyill, Revell, Rumrell and Pumrill, are as strictly temperate as…”
— Suffolk Surnames (3rd ed.)