Wickman
An English surname that may mean “man of the camp” or arise from an old personal name like Wigman.
The #8,695 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 81,787 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is likely to have more than one possible source. One traditional explanation treats it as an English place-or-status name from Old English elements like wic, meaning “camp” or “settlement,” plus man, giving the sense “camp man” or “man from the camp.” Another possibility, supported by older surname dictionaries, is that it continues an early Germanic personal name such as Wigman/Wichman, built from wig, “war.”
History
The name appears in English records in several spellings, including Wycman and Wickman, and has been treated by surname writers as both a locational/status name and a survival of a personal name. It is not among the most common surnames, but it has been established in Britain for centuries and later appears in North American records as well. Because the historical sources do not agree cleanly, the safest view is that Wickman may have developed independently in more than one line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century surname writers glossed Wickman quite literally as “a camp-man,” which shows how strongly early etymologists liked to split surnames into plain Old English parts.
From the historical record
“Geoffry Wyireman, co. York, ibid. 1565. John Wickman, Ch. Ch. : Reg. UniT. Oxf. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. la. London, 1,0,0^0; Philadelphia, o, i, I, o; New York, o, o, a, i.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)