45,357 Global Peak Family Members

Peak Family History

Family spelling variants include Pecke, Peak, Peaks, Peek, Peeke, Peck.

There are approximately 45,357 Peck family members around the world. In general you can double this figure to include those related to the Peck names to allow for those connected to the name through maiden name connections.

A metonymic occupational name for someone who dealt in weights and measures, either as a civil official responsible for ensuring that goods were sold at the correct weight, or a corn merchant, one who dealt in "pekkes". 

A pekke was a medieval measure of dry goods and equivalent to eight quarters of twenty eight pounds each. This was a large weight, but one that was used even into the 20th century in England. 

An English locative name, mostly from Peak, the district of rugged hills in north-west Derbyshire and North Staffordshire named with Old English *p?ac ‘hill, knoll, peak’. 

Early bearers of the surname include: Lettice Winters, 1580 in IGI (Grantham, Lincs); Joannes Winters, 1625 in IGI (Cambridge, Cambs); Elizabeth Winters, 1634 in IGI (Wootton Wawen, Warwicks); Daniel Winters, 1691 in IGI (Great Gransden, Hunts); Daniel Winters, 1714 in IGI (Ashwell, Herts).

Samuel Peck, an English convict from Cambridgeshire, was transported aboard the "Phoenix" ship in November 1821, settling in New South Wales, Australia.

In 1891 census, the surname was recorded in England and Wales with 1,133 occurrences and a fewer 96 in Scotland. 

In 1881 census, the surname was frequent in Middlesex and Suffolk. Cambridgeshire was also reported as a top county for the surname with 302 occurrences.

The noted, Charles Horton Peck (1833-1917), was an American mycologist who described over 2700 species of North American fungi.

Robert Peck (1945 – 1999) was an English stage, television and film actor best known for his roles as Ronald Craven in the television serial Edge of Darkness and as gamekeeper Robert Muldoon in the film Jurassic Park.

1881, 1891 Census

1881 Census in Cambridgeshire

Dictionary of American Family Homes, P Hanks OUP 2003

Homes of Family Names in Great Britain, H.B. Guppy, London 1890

The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, P.Hanks, Coats, McClure OUP 2016

1860 Lower, Mark A Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom, London: J.R Smith. Public Domain

1857 Arthur, William An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain

https://convictrecords.com.au/ships/phoenix/1821

J.M.P