CROOKES
Crookes is an English surname with origins that can be traced back to the early medieval period of the British Isles. The name is currently best understood as a locational surname derived from a place called Crookes in the West Riding of South Yorkshire, in the vicinity of Sheffield. The place name itself was originally formed from the Old Norse word krókr, meaning a bend or crook, which would have described a prominent bend in a river or a winding road in the area.
Alternately, some bearers of the name have been identified through a topographic source derived from the Old English word cruc, which means "cross." In this case the surname would have functioned as a marker for an individual who lived near a physical cross, a crossroads, or perhaps carried a cross or bore a cross-shaped birthmark. Both etymological pathways ultimately lead to descriptors of particular land features or personal characteristics.
The earliest recorded form of the name appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as “Rainal Croc,” a Welsh or Norman scribe’s attempt to capture a local name. A subsequent early record is found in the Subsidy Rolls of Yorkshire in 1297, where the surname is written as Robert de Crokis. In the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, church registers from London contain marriages of individuals bearing the name, such as George Crookes and Alice Rogers, recorded on 18 August 1577, and Thomas Crookes and Margrett Cabull, recorded on 23 December 1589. These documents provide evidence of the name’s spread beyond Yorkshire into the capital.
Spelling variation is common in the historical record. The surname has appeared in forms such as Crook, Crooks, Crooke, Crocket, Crockett and even Croker. Variants may result from regional dialects, changes in orthographic convention or simply clerical error. Because the suffix -es was frequently employed in Old English to indicate “son of” or “descendant of,” the name is sometimes interpreted as “descendant of a Crook.” In most modern contexts the different spellings are considered part of the same family line.
In contemporary times, the surname Crookes is uncommon worldwide but can still be encountered in the United Kingdom, where it remains most prevalent within its country of origin, as well as in the United States, Australia and Canada. These occurrences correspond with patterns of emigration from England in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rather than with any recent change of name. The distribution and demography of the name today reflect historical mobility rather than deliberate surname modification.
Typical given names associated with the Crookes surname
Male
- Alan
- Andrew
- David
- James
- John
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Richard
- Robert
Female
- Christine
- Emma
- Helen
- Joanne
- Julie
- Karen
- Margaret
- Rachel
- Sarah
- Susan
- Victoria
- Zoe
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Crookes in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 2,693 people named Crookes in the UK. That makes it roughly the 3,315th most common surname in Britain. Around 41 in a million people in Britain are named Crookes.
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Crookes
- Adam Crookes - Football player
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.