What country is the surname Walk from?

Answer 1

Names have been traced back to a time when countries as we know them did not exist. Occupations were used to identify an individual in a band of people which contained people with the same name. There may have be an individual in the band named 'Joe' who was a scribe and also an individual named 'Joe' who was shoemaker. When speaking to another person referring to "Joe" it was not clear as to which individual they were speaking of. To clarify and elliminate this problem the individual was referred to as 'Joe' and the occupation stated. Example: Joe Scriber or Joe Shoemaker. The Surname was born. Most names come from this process. But not all. If you are white your family tree can be traced back to the time when countries were not countries but only territories occupied by bands of people. In the region of what we know as the United Kingdom there were two bands of people. An English band occupied most of the area but was being encroached upon by a band of people to the north which we know as Irish. The English band developed an occupation to prevent this encroachment which could be equivilent to what we know as Border Guards. The referrence used to identify a person employed in this occupation was a "WALK" because the job duties required him to walk the border. Hence, the the Walk name was born. So using the example above, if the individual employeed in this position was 'Joe' he would have been referred to as "Joe Walk". But as stated early not all names come from this process. In more recent times others have received the Walk name but did not come from this ancestory. If your ancestors were slaves at the time they were freed they took the name of the family that owned them. When the Walker family released their slaves from bondage the slaves were made to drop the 'r' from the name so they would not be confused as desending from the Walker family. This is why you will see the surname "Walke". Because of errors in documentation the 'e' was sometimes not recognized. When the error was found it was much easier to except the new spelling rather than try to correct it. Now once again you have :WALK: