Frequency: (16374)
(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 (mainly East Anglia): metonymic occupational name for someone who dealt in weights and measures, for example a grain factor, from Middle English pekke ‘peck’ (an old measure of dry goods equivalent to eight quarts or a quarter of a bushel).
2. English: variant of Peak 1.
3. Irish: variant of Peak 2.
4. South German: variant of Beck.
5. North German and Dutch: metonymic occupational name for someone who prepared or sold pitch, from Middle Low German pek, Middle Dutch pec, pic.
6. Dutch: from Middle Dutch pec, pick ‘desperate straits’, hence a nickname for a person in difficult circumstances or perhaps for someone with a gloomy disposition.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
