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Acocks is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and comes from the family once having lived in the county of Berkshire in an area that was referred to as the Heycock. This surname was originally derived from the Old English word Hay-cock which denoted someone who lived at the sign of the hedgecock.
The surname Acocks was first found in Berkshire, where they held a family seat from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Acocks research. Another 60 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Acocks History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Acocks family name include Heycock, Haycock, Heycocke, Haycocke and others.
More information is included under the topic Early Acocks Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Acocks surname or a spelling variation of the name include: John Heycock, who settled in Pennsylvania in 1682; as well as Henry and William Heycock, who arrived in New York in 1823.