Beck

Variations – Beckett, Becker, Beckman
Racial Origin – Anglo-Saxon, also German
Source – Geographical, also occupational.

While the family names of Beck, Beckett, Becker and Beckman have become confused through changes in spelling, so that the tracing of one involves the tracing of the other, there are really two sources of the name, different in racial origin and in meaning.

It is safe to assert, however, that if you spell your name, Beck, or Beckett, it probably comes from England, and if it is Becker or Beckman, it originated in Germany.

Beck was simply a very old English word for brook.  It has become a family name in the same manner that Brooks has.  It probably made its first appearance in some such form as “Thomas Ate Beck,” or “Thomas of the Beck.” It is easy to see how such descriptive phrases early became family names, for they were as naturally applicable to father, son and grandson, through succeeding generations while the family continued to live in the same place.  Beck is also an Anglo-Saxon word; all of which points to a very early use of it as a family name, even if unconsciously.

Beckett means a little brook, or a brooklet.

Becker, however, is of German origin, being the word for baker, though this is betrayed by the vowel “e” rather than the ending “er” which was almost as common a method of denoting occupation in old England as in Germany.  The same holds true of Beckman, which, of course is a shortened form of Beckmann.