Tucker (surname)

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Tucker is a surname. The origin of the name is not entirely sure, but since it has a long history as a surname on both the continent as in England -and from thereon also in the United States- it presumably has the same Saxon roots. There are several explanations, all based on the fact the origin of the name is Saxon. The Saxons were a Northeuropean people living in the Northwestern part of the current Germany and the Northeastern part of what now is The Netherlands. The Romans never ruled them and after they left, the power of the Saxons in the region grew. In the 5th century A.C. there expansion policy took them across the Northsea to England. There they established power in most parts of the country. Linguistically the word 'tucker' is assumed to be related to the German 'tucher', meaning clothweaver. This linguistic origin is also recognizable in the English meaning, were the meaning of 'tucker' is related to (spinning of) lace and to the profession of a 'fuller'. It nevertheless is possible the name crossed the sea many centuries later (14 and 15th century), when there was an intensive wooltrade between Flanders and England. In this scenario the word/name 'tucker' travelled either from England to the continent, or the other way around. We know however that many people from Flanders established themselves on the Southcoast of England as wooltraders, spinsters and 'fullers'. In the Netherlands the earliest known Tucker is Jan Tucker, who sold a house in the city of Breda in 1368 (on the border of Flanders and the Barony of Breda). He problably is the forefather in a straight line of Willem Janssen Tucker of Hagestein (1682-1757), with which most of the Tucker/Tukker families now living in the Netherlands are related. This Willem Janssen Tucker carried a heraldary crest with three trammels (adjustable pothooks), symbol of the Saxon homestead. Over the centuries the name in The Netherlands has been written both with 'ck' as well as with 'kk' (since the second half of the 18th century). The name Tucker/Tukker is also the name used for all those people living in Twente, in the Eastern part of the country. Some cities here have the trammel in their city-crests. The local language in this region, as well as in the Northwestern part of Germany, is even now still categorised as Lower-Saxon.

As a surname 'Tucker' also refers to:

[edit] See also

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