Hook
A mostly English surname for someone who lived by a bend, nook, or hooked-shaped place.
The #2,680 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 22,977 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually topographical, from Middle English hook, meaning a bend, corner, or hooked projection in the landscape. In surname use it typically described someone who lived near such a feature, especially in a place called "the Hook" or "at the hook." Some older writers also linked it more broadly with Germanic words for a hill or raised place, but the precise oldest source is not certain.
History
Medieval records show forms such as Atte Hooke and del Hoke, which fit the common English habit of turning a place-description into a surname. In some cases the spelling Hooke was later shortened or altered, and related names such as Tooke were sometimes explained from the same source. A minority of evidence may point to an occasional personal-name origin in older Scandinavian or Anglo-Saxon contexts, but the place-name explanation is the main one.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The word hook here is not about the tool alone: in surname history it often meant a bend or corner in the land.
From the historical record
“Uffa or Offa, a well-known personal name. HOOK. HOOKE. Many localities in England bear the name of "the Hook," an expression which is doubtless topographical, though its precise derivation is not known. It is probably allied to the Teutonic hoe, 7ioh, hoch, &c., all meaning a hill or elevated place. The surname was…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom