Hack
An English surname that can come from a hedge, a half-door or hatch, or less certainly from a nickname or personal name.
The #5,379 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 47,734 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname has more than one possible source. One line of explanation connects it with Old English words for a hedge or enclosure, giving a topographic or locational sense. Another traditional explanation, found in later surname books, links it with Middle English "hack" meaning a hatch or half-door, so the name could describe someone who lived by such a feature. Some writers also treated it as a shortened form connected with the old personal name Hake, so the exact origin may vary by family.
History
Early records show the surname in several English counties in medieval times, including Lincolnshire, Somerset, and Devon. Nineteenth-century surname scholars disagreed on whether it was chiefly local/topographic or patronymic, which suggests multiple independent origins. The name has remained relatively uncommon, but it persists in English-speaking countries.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century source explicitly noted that the word "hack" was still used in Lincolnshire with the sense of a hedge.
From the historical record
“orthography. HACK. A-Sax. hcge. A hedge. Tlie Avord hack is still used iu this sense in co. Lincoln. HACKBLOCK. ProbaLly from some manual feat. Wagstaif, llurlbat, Shake- shaft, &c., are of analogous derivation. See under Shakspeare. HACKER. See Hackman. But Mr. Arthur derives it from a Dutch word signi- fying " a…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom