Aker
Aker is usually an English surname from a word for an acre or field, originally marking someone who lived by or worked on a piece of land.
The #9,539 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 90,594 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally taken from Old English and Middle English acre, meaning a field or plot of arable land. In surname use, it could have been applied to someone who lived by an acre of land or who was identified with a specific small holding. Older surname writers also treated related spellings such as Acker and Ackers as part of the same group.
History
The name appears in medieval English records in several spelling forms, and later family names such as Aker, Acker, and Ackers continued side by side. Because the word was common and the spelling was fluid, the surname may have arisen independently in more than one place. It is especially familiar in English-speaking countries and also appears in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers sometimes grouped Aker with names like Ackerman and Acland because they began with the same old word for land, though their full origins are not the same.
From the historical record
“3AKER John de Bayns, co. Staff., Hen, III- Edw.I. K. : Sutpirins de Bayons, C.R., ao Edw. I. Thomas de Baines, 1379 : P. T. Yorks. p. 48. 1577. Bapt. — Franuncea. d. Richard Baines : St. Peter's, Comhill, i. 18.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)