Find out how popular the last name Hoker is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Hoker.

Hoker, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Hoker surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Hoker in America

Hoker is the 138304th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Hoker surname appeared 121 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Hoker.

We can also compare 2010 data for Hoker to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Hoker

The surname HOKER has its origins in England, dating back to the late 12th century. It is derived from the Old English words "hoc" meaning hook and "ere" meaning a person who works with hooks, suggesting that the name likely referred to a maker or seller of hooks or other related metal goods.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name HOKER can be found in the Pipe Rolls of Lincolnshire from 1195, which mentions a person named Geoffrey Hocere. The name also appears in the Curia Regis Rolls of Hampshire in 1210 as Willelmus Hochere.

During the Middle Ages, the name HOKER was particularly prevalent in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, where several villages and hamlets had names that incorporated variations of the word, such as Hockering, Hockwold, and Hokeringge. These place names likely influenced the spelling and pronunciation of the surname over time.

One notable historical figure bearing the name HOKER was Sir John Hoker (1545-1616), an English politician and Member of Parliament for Shaftesbury during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Another was William Hoker (c. 1554-1622), an English clergyman and author who wrote a treatise on witchcraft titled "An Admirable Discoverie of the Witchcraftes of Margaret and Philip Flower."

In the 17th century, the HOKER surname appeared in several parish records, including those of St. Mary's Church in Bury St. Edmunds, where the baptism of Thomas Hoker was recorded in 1634. Around the same time, a James Hoker was mentioned in the court records of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury in 1635.

Another notable bearer of the HOKER surname was John Hoker (1756-1826), a British naval officer who served during the American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. He achieved the rank of Rear Admiral and was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1815.

One of the earliest instances of the HOKER surname in North America can be found in the records of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where a Thomas Hoker was listed as a freeman in 1637. This suggests that the name had begun to spread to the New World by the early colonial period.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Hoker

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Hoker.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Hoker was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Hoker has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Hoker was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Hoker, please contact us.

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