Rook, surname origins etc. (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Saturday, February 11, 2012, 03:04 (4665 days ago) @ rookancestrybest

Hi,
do you know more precisely where they are/were located ?. I have relatives in Coleford area who MAY perhaps be able to help. What a shame we don't all have BT phone numbers in big directories these days !

WRT name Rook, my goodness there aren't many of you in the PRs are there !. Rather nice to have an unusual name compared to my common I mean popular Jones ;-)

Saying this, I see statistically in the 1881 Census Herefordshire hence the Forest was a relative "stronghold" for the clearly rare name of Rook. Not surprisingly given the bird's habitat the name is also concentrated in the agricultural areas of the UK particularly Lincolnshire, the Fens, Hampshire and North Devon.
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Map.aspx?name=ROOK&year=1881&altyear=1998&...

Perhaps oddly in these respects Rookery was also used to describe a Victorian slum, specifically St Giles in London: "A rookery was the historical name given to a city slum. It is said that the term is linked to the nesting habits of the rook bird. The bird prefers to nest in large colonies, squashed together, which for a noisy and cramped living space much like the rookeries of London."
http://oldelondon.org/2011/05/17/london-rookery/

Not that your house is like this, of course !

Finally

"Last name: Rook
Recorded in several spellings including Rook, Rookes and Ruck (English), De Roeck and Roeck (Dutch & Flemish), this interesting surname is medieval. In a sense it is a nickname either for somebody who lived at a house or inn which had the sign of a rook, or it was given to a person who had some fancied resemblance to the bird. This was perhaps dark hair and complexion or a rapacious view of life! It derives from the Norse pre 7th century word "hroc", a rook, and it is possible that it was also an ethnic name for the Vikings, even though they were usually fair skinned. In the early English records which were the first in Europe we see the beginings of the development of the name. These recordings include William le Roke in the Assize Rolls of Somerset in 1143, William Ruk in the Subsidy Tax Rolls of Sussex in 1296, and that of Richard le Rouke in the Subsidy Rolls of Somerset in 1327. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Roc. This was dated 1185, in the Knight Templars Rolls of Oxford", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189."
http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/rook#ixzz1m2MlWnbB

I expect you knew all this, but if so hopefully the websites may be of interest to others. I find the Census site of particular interest, for example wrt my Beard cousins who enjoy having an almost exclusively Gloucestershire surname !