As described in historical dictionaries

An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names (1857)

(origin: Dutch.) From the Mark. Mark was the denomination of a kind of county which made the bound or limit of a country--like the British marches. Hence mark-graaf, marquis, the keeper of the marks or marches.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.


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