Dicks
A surname that usually began as a patronymic from Dick, a familiar medieval short form of Richard.
The #7,831 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 73,024 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Dicks is generally understood as an English surname built from Dick, the familiar medieval nickname for Richard, with -s meaning "son of" or "belonging to." In other words, it originally meant "Dick's child" or "descendant of Dick." Older surname books also group it with related forms such as Dix, Dickson, and Dickinson.
History
19th-century surname scholars treated Dicks as a straightforward English patronymic from Richard via the nickname Dick. The name is found alongside many other Richard-based surnames in English records and later spread through ordinary surname transmission rather than from a separate place-name or occupation. The form Diggs was sometimes noted as a related variant.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
It belongs to the same nickname family as Dickson, Dixon, and Dix, all ultimately going back to Richard.
From the historical record
“man. DICKS. See Richard. DICKSEE. The same as Dixie. DICKSON. See Richard. DIDSBURY. A chapelry of Manchester. DIGBY. A parish in Lincolnshire. The noble family are of great antiquity in co. Warwick.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom