Deker History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

The history of the name Deker dates back to the ancient Anglo-Saxon culture of Britain. It is derived from a member of the family who worked as a worker who was a dike or ditch maker.

Early Origins of the Deker family

The surname Deker was first found in East Sussex and either Upper Dicker or Lower Dicker, villages that date back to 1229 where they were listed as Diker.

The place name is derived from the Middle English word "dyker" which means "ten" as in a plot of land for which ten iron rods were paid in rent. 1

Early History of the Deker family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Deker research. Another 258 words (18 lines of text) covering the years 1066, 1210, 1296, 1327, 1379, 1572, 1577, 1600, 1625, 1628, 1631, 1632 and 1637 are included under the topic Early Deker History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Deker Spelling Variations

Only recently has spelling become standardized in the English language. As the English language evolved in the Middle Ages, the spelling of names changed also. The name Deker has undergone many spelling variations, including Dicker, Decker, Deeker, Dyker, Dikkers, Ditcher and many more.

Early Notables of the Deker family

Notables of the family at this time include Thomas Dekker (c. 1572-1632), an English Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer. "His birthplace was London, as he intimates in ‘The Seuen Deadly Sinnes,’ 1600, and in ‘A Rod for Run-awayes,’ 1625. In ‘Warres, Warres, Warres,’ a tract published in 1628, he describes himself as an old man; and in the dedication to ‘Match...
Another 59 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Deker Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Deker migration to the United States +

To escape the unstable social climate in England of this time, many families boarded ships for the New World with the hope of finding land, opportunity, and greater religious and political freedom. Although the voyages were expensive, crowded, and difficult, those families that arrived often found greater opportunities and freedoms than they could have experienced at home. Many of those families went on to make significant contributions to the rapidly developing colonies in which they settled. Early North American records indicate many people bearing the name Deker were among those contributors:

Deker Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Johann Heinrich Deker, who arrived in Texas in 1845 2

Citations +

Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)