This unusual name is the Scottish form of a very ancient personal name, the old Norse "Toki", Anglo-Scandinavian "Toka" or "Toke", which is found recorded in England before the Norman Conquest. One "Askyl Tokes Sune" (Askyl son of Toke) signed one of the charters of Edward the Confessor in 1060. The English versions of the name are "Took", "Tuck", "Tuke", "Toke". "Tocca" is mentioned as holding the land of Perdeyc (Patrick) in a charter by David I to the Church of Glasgow before 1136 (Glasgow Episcopal Records). The first recording of the name in its modern spelling is that of "Isabel Tock" in Edinburgh, 1649 (Register of Marriages) and Thomas Tock, painter, also in Edinburgh, 1686 (ibid). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Symone Tok. which was dated 1281, charter witness, Aberdeen Episcopal Records. during the reign of King Alexander III of Scotland, 1249 - 1286. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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