← Surname Means
Occupation

Parker

Keeper of a park — a gamekeeper or park officer.

Confidence
High
US frequency
Rank 58 · 323,880 people
Common variants
Parkes, Park

The short story

Parker is English occupational from Old French: the keeper of a park. In medieval England a "park" was enclosed hunting ground for a lord, so the parker was a gamekeeper or park officer, not someone who simply liked green space.

The surname is a job title that went hereditary. It is unrelated to the modern given name Parker in origin, even though Americans now use Parker as a first name too. Enclosed parks were status symbols, and keeping them was skilled estate work.

Also seen as: Parkes, Park

Sources used