VICKERY
Vickery is a surname of English origin, first recorded in the early fourteenth century. The earliest known instance is found in the Subsidy Rolls of Staffordshire, dated 1327, and the name has persisted in Britain to the present day.
The name is derived from the medieval given name Vicary or Vicar, which in turn comes from the Middle English vicare or vickere. These words were adopted from Old French vicaire, and ultimately from Latin vicarius, meaning “deputy”, “substitute” or a cleric acting on behalf of a bishop or a parish priest. Consequently, the surname originally indicated a person who worked as a vicar’s assistant or who was a deputy in a parish.
In the Middle Ages the surname was applied both as an occupational mark – denoting a servant or worker in the vicar’s household – and as a patronymic, meaning “son of the vicar”. Early parish records supply examples such as Henry Attevickers of Derbyshire in 1327, Peter atte Vicars of Howdenshire in 1379, and Joan Atvicars in the 1400 Yorkshire Wills. The 1581 Oxfordshire University Register records John Viccars of London, while an Anne Vickars appears in the 1592 register of the Parish Church of Rothwell, Yorkshire. By 1635 John Viccars had emigrated to the New World, leaving London on the ship Alice bound for Virginia.
During the late medieval period a number of spelling variants arose, including Vicary, Vickars, Viccars, Vickers, Vickerman, Vicars and the Scottish forms McVicar and McVicker. The first recorded use of the form Vickery is the same 1327 entry in the Staffordshire Subsidy Rolls, while later Cadaver rolls and parish registers confirm the consistent use of this spelling through the seventeenth century.
Today the surname is most common within the United Kingdom, particularly in the northern counties of Lancashire and Cumbria. The name is also concentrated in the Greater Manchester area, including Manchester and Salford. This distribution reflects nineteenth‑century migration from rural Cumbria to the industrial towns of Manchester during the period of rapid urban growth.
Beyond Britain, bearers of the surname can be found throughout the English‑speaking world. In particular, the United States hosts a significant population, largely descended from early settlers who arrived in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The surname also appears, in smaller numbers, in Scotland, Australia, and Ireland, where similar forms such as Viggy and Victorson arose, probably from later British migration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Heraldic records associate the Vickery name with a silver shield bearing a red fret; the crest is described as a cubit arm proper, vested red, holding an azure millrind. This coat of arms is recorded in several genealogical compendia and is the most frequently cited emblem for families bearing the surname.
In summary, Vickery is a historically grounded English surname, originating as a designation for clerical deputies and evolving through both occupational and patronymic uses. Its diverse spellings and extensive geographic distribution attest to its persistence through the centuries and its continued presence in modern genealogy and heraldry.
Typical given names associated with the Vickery surname
Male
- Alan
- Andrew
- David
- James
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Richard
- Robert
Female
- Angela
- Catherine
- Emma
- Helen
- Karen
- Kathleen
- Laura
- Linda
- Margaret
- Sarah
- Susan
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 Vickery in...
Braille
⠧⠊⠉⠅⠑⠗⠽
Morse
...-..-.-.-.-..-.-.--
Semaphore
There are approximately 4,443 people named Vickery in the UK. That makes it roughly the 2,118th most common surname in Britain. Around 68 in a million people in Britain are named Vickery.
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Vickery
- Phil Vickery - Chef
- Tim Vickery - Brazilian football commentator
- Amanda Vickery - Historian
- Frank Vickery - Welsh writer (1951 to 2018)
- Brian Campbell Vickery - Information theorist (1918 to 2009)
- Tony Vickery - Cricket player (1925 to 2013)
- Joe Vickery - Rugby league 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.