Shanks
A nickname surname from “shank,” meaning leg or shank, originally describing someone with a notable build or gait.
The #3,031 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 26,116 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Shanks comes from the Middle English word shank, from Old English scanca, meaning a leg or shank. As a surname it began as a nickname for someone with a noticeable feature of the legs, especially long, thin, or otherwise distinctive shanks. The plural form likely reflects the common surname pattern of nicknames built from a bodily feature.
History
Historical surname writers treated Shanks as part of a wider family of nicknames such as Longshanks, Crookshanks, and Sheepshanks. It is especially associated with Scotland and northern Britain, though it also appears in English records. The name has remained in use as a hereditary surname long after the original descriptive sense faded.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same root appears in famous medieval nickname-surnames like Edward Longshanks.
From the historical record
“SHANK "1 (Eng.) a nickname from some pecu- SHANKS J liarity of the Leg(s [M.E. schanke, 0.£. scancay a leg] Shanley 151 Shawcross”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)