This surname, recorded in the spellings of Stock, Stocke, and Stockman, is of 8th century Anglo-Saxon origins. It has three possible sources. The first being a topographical name for someone who lived either near a large tree, or by a bridge over a stream consisting of felled tree trunks. The derivation is from the word "stocc", meaning the trunk of a tree. The genitive ending "s" denotes the dweller at the place concerned. The second possibility is as a nickname surname for a stout and stocky man, whilst the third options are occupational. These include the keeper of punishment stocks, or more likely a person responsible for the keeping of cattle. Judging by the earliest recording, this was both a male and female job.Early recording examples include Rosia atte Stocke of Worcester in the year 1275, and Emma Stocman, at Oxford in 1279. The name was an early introdution into the New World when Robert Stock sailed from the port of London on July 10th 1635 to Berumuda, aboard the ship "Truelove". Among the later recordings of the name is that of Daniel Stock, a witness at St. Margaret's, Westminster, on January 1593, whilst another example is the marriage of Robert Stocker and Agnes Cotes, at the church of St. Gregory and St. Paul, city of London, on April 28th 1560. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de la Stokke, which was dated 1225, in the Assize Rolls of the county of Somerset, during the reign of King Henry 111, 1216 - 1272. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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