Pickering
A surname from the Yorkshire market town of Pickering, originally a place name tied to the landscape or local stream name.
The #2,653 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 22,732 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Pickering is a locational surname taken from the town of Pickering in North Yorkshire. The place-name is usually explained as meaning something like “the people of Picer” or “Picer’s meadow,” with the final element reflecting an old word for a meadow or enclosed land; another traditional explanation links it to a district name associated with peaks or hills. In short, the surname means “someone from Pickering.”
History
Medieval records already show forms such as de Pikering in Yorkshire, and the surname spread from there into other parts of England. Later surname books note that it became widely distributed and generated several spelling variants. It remains especially associated with northern England, though it is now found more broadly in the English-speaking world.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some older writers suggested the town name may refer to a district at the foot of the nearby hills rather than a personal name, so the place-name itself has an interestingly debated history.
From the historical record
“PSac-land. PICKERING (North.) Bel. to Pickering (N. Yorks), 13th cent. Pikering, app. = PiKER's Meadow [O.N. eng (Anglicized ing), a meadow] ; but Canon Taylor, who re- sided in the vicinity, says ('Names and their Hist./ p. 222), that Pickedng Lythe was "the lythe or district of the Pikerings, the 'men of the…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)