Family name origins & meanings
- English : probably for the most part a topographic name for someone who lived near the trunk or stump of a large tree, Middle English stocke (Old English stocc). In some cases the reference may be to a primitive foot-bridge over a stream consisting of a felled tree trunk. Some early examples without prepositions may point to a nickname for a stout, stocky man or a metonymic occupational name for a keeper of punishment stocks.
- German : from Middle German stoc ‘tree’, ‘tree stump’, hence a topographic name equivalent to 1, but sometimes also a nickname for an impolite or obstinate person.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Stock ‘stick’, ‘pole’.