Sacks
Usually a surname from a sack-maker or from the medieval word for a sack; in some cases it may also reflect the name Isaac.
The #7,281 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 67,456 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Sacks is most often treated as an occupational name, from Middle English words for a sack or bag-maker, closely related to forms like Sacker and Sekker. The same surname form can also arise as a reduced or variant spelling of Isaacs, or from the personal name Isaac in some traditions. A few older writers also connected Sacks with German names such as Sachs/Sacks(e), so the surname may have more than one source.
History
In English records, related forms such as Sekker and Sacker appear in the Middle Ages, showing that the name-type is old. Later spellings vary widely, and in some families Sacks may be an Anglicized or altered form of a German or Jewish surname, while in others it is plainly occupational. Because of that, the same modern spelling can have different family origins.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries sometimes disagreed on whether Sacks came from sacks or from Isaac, which is a good reminder that one spelling can hide several histories.
From the historical record
“modern Anglicization of the corresp. Ger- man Sacks{e; and also represent the borrowed Irish Sacs, Enghshman, Saxon. SAXBY (Scand.) Bel. to Saxby (Leic, Line.' [for the first element see under Sax ; and”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named Sacks
- Oliver Sacks (1933–2015)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.