Matlock
A locational surname from Matlock in Derbyshire, England.
The #2,861 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 24,506 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Matlock is an English habitational surname taken from the town of Matlock in Derbyshire. The place name is generally explained as meaning something like “meeting-place by the oak” or, more cautiously, as a name built from Old English elements referring to a “meeting” or “moot” and an oak tree or oak wood. The surname would originally have identified someone who had come from that place.
History
The historical excerpts supplied here do not give a dedicated entry for Matlock itself, but they do show Matlock being used as a clear Derbyshire place-reference in nearby surname entries. As with many English local surnames, it would have arisen when people moved away from the village or town and were identified by their place of origin. The name is relatively uncommon in the US today, but it is fully established as an English toponymic surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Matlock is also the name of a well-known Derbyshire spa town in the Peak District, which helped keep the place name recognizable outside surname studies.
From the historical record
“ORDISH (Eng.) Bel. to (High) Ordish, nr. Matlock [the second element seems to be the O.E. edisc, a park, pasture: early forms are necessary to decide whether the first elerrient is O.E. dra, a bank, or the A.-Sax. pers. name Ord{a]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)