Mark
A surname that most often began as the given name Mark, though some families may also derive it from a boundary or landmark.
The #2,537 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 21,644 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In the surname sources, Mark is primarily treated as a family name taken from the Christian given name Mark, from Latin Marcus. Marcus was a common Roman personal name, later popularized in Christian Europe by St. Mark the Evangelist. Some writers also note a separate English surname sense from Old English m(e)arc, meaning a boundary or mark, used for someone living by a boundary or frontier.
History
The name was in use as a surname by the medieval and early modern periods, especially where the personal name Mark was common. In England it could appear in simple forms such as Mark, Marks, and Markes, while related forms like Markcock were noted as diminutives. The surname may be independent in some families from the place-boundary sense, but the Christian-name origin is the most direct and frequent explanation in the historical dictionaries consulted.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Harrison’s dictionary explicitly gives both the personal-name origin and a separate boundary-related origin, showing that even a short surname like Mark can have more than one historical source.
From the historical record
“I — Burke's Landed Gentry, ed. 1849. MARK, the Latin AfarcMJ, a common 1 Roman prsenomen (gen. abbreviated M.) = Hammer [Lat. marcus, a hammer ; dim. marculus] (Eng.) Dweller at a Mark or Boundary [O.E. m(e)arc\ MARKEY (Celt.) Horseman, Rider [Ir. mar- each = Gael, marcaiche — marc, a horse]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)