Ostick

Recorded in a number of spellings including Astick, Austweek, Austwick, Austwicke, Ostick, Ostweeke, and Ostwick, this is a medieval English surname. It is locational and originates from a place in the West Riding of Yorkshire called Austwick. This has been variously spelt over the centuries being first recorded as Oustewic in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as Austwich and Estwich in same the pipe rolls of Yorkshire in the year 1166. It is hardly surprising therefore that the name has developed all its forms. The place name is a Scandinavian version of the Old English pre 7th Century "east," which in the context of a place name means "to the east", and the suffix of "-wic", an early loan word from the Latin "vicus", and describing a dairy-farm. Hence the dairy far to the east (of the main settlement). Locational surnames are usually 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else, even though this may only be to the next hamlet. Early examples of surviving recordings taken from the church registers of Yorkshire include on September 12th 1558, John Austwicke, who was christened at Ackworth, and on April 29th 1663, Richard Astwick who was christened at Featherstone. Far away in the registers of the city of London we have John Astick at St Sepulchre church, on May 8th 1664, when he was a christening witness to his daughter Margaret, Martha Ostweeke, who was christened at St. James Clerkenwell, on June 11th 1682, and on August 19th 1701, Mary, the daughter of Thomas Ostick, who was christened at St. Anne's Soho, Westminster. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.