Hacker
A surname with several possible roots, including a maker or user of a cutting tool and, in some cases, a nickname from an old personal name.
The #2,642 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 22,660 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally explained from words connected with a hook, hoe, axe, or other cutting tool, so it may have begun as an occupational name for someone who used or made such tools. Some older writers also connect it with a German or Dutch word for a chopper or hewer, or with an old nickname based on a personal name such as Hack/Hakka. In Scandinavian-derived explanations, it is treated as a nickname surname from an old personal-name element rather than from an occupation.
History
The name is recorded in English sources by the medieval and early modern period, and later surname dictionaries place it alongside forms such as Haggard, Harker, and Hackett. Because the same spelling can reflect different underlying words in different regions, the history of the surname is not single or simple. It became established as a modestly common English-language surname and later spread to North America.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early surname writers sometimes grouped Hacker with occupational names for tradespeople, especially those linked to cutting or trimming tools.
From the historical record
“under Shakspeare. HACKER. See Hackman. But Mr. Arthur derives it from a Dutch word signi- fying " a chopper, cleaver, or hewer, and figuratively, a brave soldier." HACKETT. A known corruption of Ilarcourt, 1GG9. See Burn's Tradesmen's Tokens, p. 73. But Hacket, a non-prefixed surname, is found in H.R. HACKFORTH. A…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom