Beckett
An English surname most often linked to a place-name meaning “beck-head” or “stream source,” though some early writers also treated it as a personal-name form.
The #3,045 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 26,247 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Beckett is usually explained as an English place-name surname, from a place called Beckett or from the phrase meaning “at the beck head,” that is, by the head or source of a stream. The first element is beck, a northern English word for a brook or stream, and the second is head in the sense of “end” or “source.” Some 19th-century surname writers also suggested a baptismal or personal-name origin in some cases, so the surname may not have a single explanation for every family line.
History
The name appears in medieval records in forms such as Becket and Beckett, and later spread through England as a surname attached to local origin. It is also related to the better-known form A’Beckett or Atte-Beckett, which makes the locational sense especially clear. In some families the name may have been reinforced or re-formed from a personal name, so not every Beckett line necessarily shares the same origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is often confused with Thomas Becket, the famous medieval archbishop, but the surname itself is broader and much older as a family name in several English places.
From the historical record
“Akenhead, i.e. at the head of the oak' trees, corresponds with Birken- head, Birkett, and Beckett, q.v. David Akenhead, 1763: Brand'i Kid. JohaniiM Je'Xjkehenod, 1379; P. T.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances