Explore the Family Name Kollock

The meaning of Kollock

1. Probably an altered form of English Collock, itself a variant of Collick. The surname Collock is very rare in Britain. 2. Alternatively, perhaps an Americanized form of Breton Colloc, a nickname derived from Old Breton coledoc ‘beloved’. 3. Germanized form of Sorbian Kolak, from a pet form of the personal name Nikola (see Nicholas), or of its Polish cognate Kołak (see Kolak). This surname is rare in Germany. History: The first Kollock in North America was Jacob Kollock, born c.1657, who by 1690 lived in Sussex County, DE. His origin is not known. Family tradition says that he was a Huguenot from southern France. However, his name is not listed in the (US) National Huguenot Society’s register of qualified Huguenot ancestors, nor in the similar register of the Huguenot Society of America, and the closest match to the surname Kollock in France is Colloc, found in the northwestern part of this country, in Brittany. However, since Jacob Kollock was a resident in Sussex County, DE, it is possible that he was one of the English Quakers who sailed with William Penn to Delaware in 1682, when Penn was granted the territory by the Duke of York and renamed one its districts for his home county of Sussex. In 1676 Penn had bought a house in Warminghurst, Sussex, which became a centre for Quaker worship. It is less than ten miles from Colhook in Petworth, where the surname Kolhok, Collock, or Collick originated in the 13th century and subsequently had a long history in neighbouring villages and towns.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.