Crick

Recorded as Crick, and the rare patronymic Crickson, this is an English surname. It is apparently locational originating from either of the places called Crick, in the county of Northamptonshire, and the former county of Monmouthshire, near the town of Chepstow. The place in Northants is recorded as Crec in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as Kreic in 1201. It derives it's name from the Old British (pre-Roman) word "cruc", meaning a hill. The place in Monmouthshire is similar and derives its name from the Welsh word "creic", meaning a rock. Locational surnames were usually given to the lord of the manor and to those former inhabitants of a place who left the area to live or work in another town. It is unclear as to how the patronymic developed, but early examples of recordings taken from surviving church registers include the marriage of Dorrithy Crick and Stephen Birtbeck on May 29th 1620 at St. Giles Cripplegate, in the city of London, and that of Mary Crickson who was christened at the same church, seventy years later on January 17th 1699. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Barthholomew de Crekke. This was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls of landowners of Suffolk, during the reign of King Edward Ist, 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.