← Surname Means
Occupation

Cook

A cook, seller of cooked food, or keeper of an eating house.

Confidence
High
US frequency
Rank 66 · 290,386 people
Common variants
Cooke, Koch

The short story

Cook is English occupational: Middle English cok/cook from Old English cōc, naming a cook, a seller of cooked meats, or someone keeping an eating house. Large households and inns needed that role, so the surname arose in many places at once.

Irish and Scottish Cook is often the same English word; some Gaelic Mac Cúg lines were anglicized to Cook. German Koch and other European "cook" names may be translated to Cook in America. The core gloss stays kitchen work, not a place-name.

Also seen as: Cooke, Koch

Sources used