Pyke

This picturesque and interesting name if of early medieval English origin, and has three possible derivations, although they are all metonymic occupational names; the first possibly is that it is for a fishmonger, or a fisherman for Pike, as we have early recordings in the Subsidy Rolls of London of an Alexander le Pik, who was a fishmonger and owner of a ship in 1292. The derivation is from the Middle English "pike", (the fish, being named from its pointed jaw). Secondly, it may be a surname for one who worked the soil using a pointed tool (pike) for breaking up the earth, also deriving from the Middle English "pike". Lastly, it is likely that it could be the name given to a soldier who used a pike, a weapon consisting of a sharp metal end on a long pole. This time the derivation is from the Old French "pique", pike. In St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, on October 28th 1677 one Carolus Pike, son of Richi and Bridget Pike, was christened. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Aluric Pic, which was dated 1066, in the Domesday Book, Devon, during the reign of King William 1, known as "The Conqueror", 1066 - 1087. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.