Blocker
An occupational surname for someone who made blocks, especially hat-blocks or shoe blocks.
The #3,874 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 33,746 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Blocker comes from Middle English block, meaning a wooden block or form, plus the agent suffix -er, “one who works with.” In the historical surname record, it most often refers to a maker of blocks for hats, and sometimes to a block-maker connected with shoemaking or block-hewing. The name is therefore an occupational byname that later became hereditary.
History
The surname is recorded in medieval and early modern English surname materials, where it appears in forms such as le Blokkere. Nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century surname writers linked it especially with hat-making, and one also notes the word’s wider association with “block” as a shaping form. It remained a fairly uncommon surname and is now found chiefly in English-speaking countries, especially the United States.
Origin
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Fun fact
The surname is tied to the same “block” that later gave English slang words like “blockhead” and “bloke.”
From the historical record
“and Blaydes. BLOCKER, he who made blocks for hats. From the block came the slang " bloke " and " blockhead." BLOOMER, a man who runs iron into moulds. BLOWER, the man employed to work the bellows in a furnace or smelting-house ; often corrupted into Blore or Blow. The architect of the first name and the musician of…”
— Family Names and their Story