According to the US Census Bureau, “Tucker” is the 128th most common surname in the USA, with some 212,000 bearers. There are several contributory factors to the commonality. Clearly, one reason is the early date the name is known to have arrived on the shores of the pre-USA colonies. Another reason is that the name has “absorbed” many variations of independent origin.
Having studied the topic quite thoroughly, as have many others, I have found three main origins (Irish, English and Norman), and three that are less common (German, Dutch and Jewish). Clearly, there are more, but these six seem to have found the most general agreement, and represent the majority of Tucker surname bearers in the USA. The fact is, there is more than one origin, and any argument for one “super-origin” is quite simply, incorrect. In fact, each of them is probably true to some extent in its own right, and could easily have arisen independently. The best course of action the family researcher can take is to find his/her own family to get the best idea of the origin to which he/she is most closely related.
Having said that, let me briefly mention the six I have studied… Also, this is not meant to be an all-inclusive list, nor an exhaustive explanation, so there is no need to argue that I have left something out. I know that already…
English origin. Chiefly found in southwestern England (ie. Cornwall) and South Wales, it is an occupational name for a fuller, from an agent derivative of Middle English tuck(en) ‘to full cloth’ (Old English tucian ‘to torment’). This was the term used for the process in the Middle Ages in southwestern England, and the surname is more common there than elsewhere. (source:Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4). Incidentally, it would not be incorrect to refer to the native people of Wales and Cornwall as “Celtic.”
Norman origin. From the French words “tout coeur” meaning “all heart.” This could very well be purely legendary, as some people like to claim Norman origins to imply aristocracy, and association with William I (a.k.a. The Conqueror). I can cite no primary source for this origin.
German origin. Americanized form of German Tucher, from an occupational name for a cloth maker or merchant, from an agent derivative of Middle High German tuoch ‘cloth’. Some of the spelling variants might include, but are not limited to, Tuecher, Tucher, Tuchner, Toucher, etc., etc. (source: Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4).
It is my understanding that “High German” closely resembles modern German, while “Low German” spoken in the area called Westphalia, would be closer to the modern Dutch of the Netherlands. I have also read, but cannot confirm, that the German origin of “Tucker” was in the area of Nuremburg, and was a nickname for a person from Nuremburg. Since I do not speak German, I do not know if this is actually the case.
Dutch Origin. The following excerpt is borrowed from Wikipedia.org, and as such, I cannot vouch for its accuracy…
“In the Netherlands the earliest known Tucker is Jan Tucker, who sold a house on the Hagedijk (main road to Antwerp) in the city of Breda in 1368 (on the border of Flanders and the Barony of Breda)[3]. Breda held a local monopoly on the wooltrade in those days[4]. It was a forefather of Willem Janssen Tucker of Hagestein (1682-1757), with which most of the Tucker/Tukker families now living in the Netherlands are related, who most probably adopted the surname ‘Tucker’ from his wife in the 16th century, which means most Dutch Tukkers nowadays got this surname through early maternal heritage.
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. The local language in this region, as well as in the Northwestern part of Germany, is even now still categorised as Lower-Saxon[5].”
Jewish origin. Americanized form of Jewish To(c)ker, and Tokarz, which is Polish and Jewish (from Poland): occupational name from Polish tokarz ‘turner’. (source: Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4).
Then, there is my personal favorite, Irish origin. The reason it is my personal favorite is because it is the one with which I most closely identify. That is because I have so many other Irish family lines (O’Carroll, Purcell, McCarty, Magill, Adams and Johnstone of Ulster, Malone, Coleman, Jordan, etc.). According to Patrick Woulfe in his book “Irish Names and Surnames” the “Tucker” surname arose from the native Gaelic name “O’Tuachair,” or more correctly “Uá Tuathchair” meaning “people dear.” It is represented by the anglicized forms “Tucker,” “Togher,” “Tougher,” “Tooker,” etc., in much the same way that “Uí Maoil Eoin” is represented by the anglicized “Malone” and “Uí Chearbhaill” is represented by the anglicized “Carroll.” He says that the name arose in the Ely-O’Carroll region of County Tipperary and County Offaly, and migrated into surrounding counties. This is the same area from which my O’Carroll family originated. The other sept was known to be in County Mayo. His findings were confirmed by Edward MacLysaght, Chief Herald of Ireland, and published in his book “More Irish Families.” There are at least five other confirming sources, all of which I have in my personal library, but since I am not quoting them here, I will not bother to cite them all.
The name “Uá TuathChair” appears in the “Annals of Ulster” as early as 1126 A.D., which predates the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland, thus proving the Gaelic origin of this name. There is little doubt that the name took on the more common form of Tucker, but the question is, when…? Was it Anglicized by native English speakers who tried to pronounce it phonetically…? Edward MacLysaght says this:
These corruptions [of Irish names], of course, are due to the influence of the English language…names of tenants were inscribed in rentals by strangers brought in to act as clerks, who attempted to write phonetically what they regarded as outlandish names; in the same way Gaelic speaking litigants, deponents and witnesses in law cases were arbitrarily dubbed this and that at the whim of the recording official. It was not until the nineteenth century that uniformity in the spelling of names began to be observed, but the seventeenth century was the period during which our surnames assumed approximately the forms ordinarily in use in Ireland today.
(Source: Irish Families by Edward MacLysaght. Pub. Irish Academic Press ISBN 0-7165-2364-7)
Did it make its way to from England to Ireland, or vice versa…? The mere fact that there were people born with the surname in a particular country, does not prove that country as the point of origin. For example, we know there were Tuckers born in the USA, but that does not mean the name originated here. It is possible that the name could have migrated TO England, as certainly would have been the case with the Normans. As Edward MacLysaght says in his book:
Such names as Moore, Hart, Hayes and Boyle, which are, of course, genuinely Irish and are often regarded as exclusively so, are also found as indigenous surnames in England. So here again there is no certainty in the absence of an authentic pedigree, or at least of a well-founded tradition, as a guide. It has been pointed out for example that Guinness…probably rightly derived from Magennis or MacGuinness of County Down, occurs in English records of some centuries ago in the rural county of Devonshire.
Probably the most reliable and scholarly work on English surnames is that of Professor Weekley. Yet he includes in his lists, without any mention of Ireland, several like Geary, Garvin, Grennan and Quigley: typical Gaelic-Irish surnames which, while they are no doubt occasionally found with the French or Anglo-Saxon background he indicates, when met in England at the present time are much more likely to have been brought there by Irish immigrants.
(Source: Irish Families by Edward MacLysaght. Pub. Irish Academic Press ISBN 0-7165-2364-7)
So it is at least plausible that the name could have originated in Ireland, and migrated elsewhere.
It is interesting that the arms of Thomas Tucker, b. 1628, Finglas Parish, County Dublin, Ireland, which were granted by the Ulster King of Arms in Dublin, are the most basic of all the Tucker designs. They are a simple blue shield with a silver chevron and three seahorses. This suggests (but does not necessarily prove) that they were first, and that the other variations were differenced from this basic design. They are the same as the arms of O’Tuachair of Dublin, which were granted by either the Ulster King of Arms or the Ireland King of Arms (depending on the exact date, which is not known) well prior to 1650. Whichever was the granting authority, the circumstantial implication is that the arms of O’Tuachair were first.
So as not to end this essay on a speculative note, I will reiterate the following… The best thing the researcher can do is find his/her specific ancestors, and then work to identify which origin the data supports as the origin for his/her Tucker family.
By: Tracy Edward Tucker, April 2008
Tucker Family Society 