Starke
A surname from an old word for “strong” or “stiff,” originally a nickname for a stern or sturdy person.
The #9,813 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 93,588 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Starke is a spelling variant of Stark, from a very old Germanic adjective meaning “strong,” “stiff,” or “unyielding.” The English form goes back to Old English and is related to Old Norse and other Scandinavian cognates with the same sense. In surname use, it was likely first applied as a nickname to someone thought to be physically strong, rigid, or severe.
History
The name appears in medieval English records in several spellings, including Stark and Starke, and later also spread into Scottish and Scandinavian-influenced naming traditions. 19th-century surname writers generally treated it as the same family of names as Stark, with later forms such as Starkie or Starkman sometimes explained as related derivatives. It remains a relatively uncommon surname today.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early surname commentators liked to gloss Stark as “the strong” or “the stiff,” showing how often medieval surnames began as plain nicknames.
From the historical record
“STARK \ (Eng. and Scand.) Strong, Stern, STARKE J Severe [M.E. stark(e, O.E. st(e)arc = 0.N. sterk-r (Dan.-Norw. stark] For, God be thanked, I dar make kvaunt 1 feele my lymes [limbs] stark and sufSsaunt To do al that a man bilongeth to. — Chaucer, Cant. Tales, E 1457-9.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)