Dykes
Usually a surname from a place by a ditch or dyke, though in some British traditions it was linked especially to Hadrian’s Wall.
The #2,598 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 22,254 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Dykes is generally understood as a locational surname from a dyke, ditch, or earthwork. In medieval English records, people were often named for where they lived, so the form could mean someone who lived by “the dyke” or “the dykes.” The root is the Old English word dīc, meaning a ditch, bank, or embankment.
History
The surname is well attested in northern England and Scotland, where dykes and boundary earthworks were common landscape features. One 19th-century source especially associated the name with Dykesfield in Cumberland and with the line of Hadrian’s Wall, though that specific identification may not apply to every family. In some cases, medieval spelling and usage also suggest a genitive form, effectively meaning “of Dyke” or “Dyke’s.”
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A notable old theory linked some Dykes families to Hadrian’s Wall, which was popularly called “the Dyke” or “the Dykes” in parts of northern Britain.
From the historical record
“Dyke. DYKES. There is every reason to be- lieve that this name is derived from no less an object than Hadrian's Roman Wall — the "Barrier of the Lower Isthmus." Tlie family originated at Dykesfield, co. Cum- berland, on the line of tliat celebrated de- fence. There is no doubt that the popular ap- pellation of…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom