Frequency: (646)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. English: topographic name for someone who lived by an oak tree, from misdivision of Middle English atten oke ‘at the oak’.
2. South German (also Nöck): from Tyrolean nock, nog ‘rounded hill’, ‘rock’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived by such a feature, or a nickname from the same word used in the sense ‘short and fat’.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
