Pack
Usually an English surname from a personal name or nickname, though some sources also connect it with Easter/Paschal associations or with a pack-bearer.
The #1,932 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,530 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Pack is explained in older surname books in more than one way. One line of thought treats it as a short form of an ancient personal name Pack or Peck, possibly influenced by Old English words associated with deceit; another links it to French paque, from Latin pascha, meaning Easter or Passover. A third possibility is that it arose from a word for a pack or bundle, giving a nickname for a packman, pedlar, or someone who carried goods.
History
Lower and Harrison both discuss Pack among surnames with mixed or uncertain origins, and both lean toward an old personal name as the likeliest source. Bardsley also notes Pack in connection with pack-carrying trades and as a shortened form of a name, showing that medieval bynames could easily blur occupation and nickname. The surname is well established in England and later appears in North America.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century writers even tried to connect Pack with place-names such as Packington or Peckham, showing how slippery surname etymology can be.
From the historical record
“pas, Lat. pa^s-us\ PACK \ (A,-Fr.) the French Pajwe = j One PACKE J born during the Passover Festival or Eastertide [Fr. pdque, O.Fr. pasque, Lat. pascha, Gr. Trdtcrxa; Heb. pesakh, a passing-over] 2 a der. f. Teut. : v. under (Eng.)”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)