Hollenbeck
A German locational surname, likely meaning someone from Hollenbach on the Rhine.
The #5,736 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 51,091 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally taken from the place-name Hollenbach, a town or locality in Germany. In older surname dictionaries, Hollenbeck is treated as an altered form of that German locational name. The place-name itself is commonly understood as a compound of a local name element and Bach, meaning “brook” or “stream,” though the exact first element is not always explained the same way in older sources.
History
The name appears in English-language surname books as a German place-derived surname, reflecting immigration from German-speaking areas. In the United States it is now established as a fairly uncommon surname, with bearers concentrated in German-American family lines. Older scholarship sometimes shows spelling variation or uncertainty in how the German place-name was adapted into surname form.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early surname writers often grouped Hollenbeck with other German names that had been reshaped in spelling after migration to English-speaking countries.
From the historical record
“governed ? HOLLENBECK. From Hollenbach a town on the Rhine, Germany. HOLM AN A corruption of Alkmand, a German, that is, a mixture of all men, AUe-mann. HOLME and HOLMES. Local. Meadow lands near or sur- rounded by water, grassy plains ; sometimes an island. HOLSAPPLE. Local. From Eolz, German, a wood, an apple, or…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names