Surname Vicks - Meaning and Origin
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Vicks: What does the surname Vicks mean?
The surname Vicks does not have a clear etymology as it is relatively modern and primarily associated as a brand name for a variety of over-the-counter medications. The name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is often found in Northern Europe. It could be linked to "vík," an Old Norse word meaning "bay" or "inlet", but in general, the exact meaning of the surname Vicks is not well-documented or established. Like many surnames, it could be tied to a variety of factors including an ancestral occupation, location, or characteristic. If it's linked to the brand, then it was named after the chemist Lunsford Richardson's brother-in-law, Dr. Joshua Vick. Richardson used his brother-in-law's name for the product to give it more credibility. As a surname, it is best to look for its meaning in personal family histories or genealogical records, bearing in mind that surnames can change significantly over time and can vary widely in meaning depending on cultural and regional contexts.
Order DNA origin analysisVicks: Where does the name Vicks come from?
The last name Vicks is most particularly commonly found in the United States. Today, the Vicks surname is most highly concentrated in the states of Mississippi and Alabama, where it is found in many zip codes.
Outside the U.S., many Vicks families living in the United Kingdom hail from Ireland. Additionally, it is known that Vicks families living in Australia today are mostly descendants of a group of English settlers who arrived in the late 1700s.
It is also possible that some Vicks families living in the U.S. are descended from Native Americans. Vicks is known to have been an alternate spelling for the Washoe tribe, who historically lived in California and Nevada.
The name Vicks is also thought to have come from the Scottish word “vicks”, which means “cow”. This could imply that some U.S. Vicks families are descended from Scots who either migrated to the United States or immigrated from the British Isles.
Today, many Vicks families live throughout the United States, and other parts of the world, and the number of Vicks families is increasing. The name Vicks is thus a quite common last name in the United States, and in other parts of the world too.
Variations of the surname Vicks
The surname Vicks is one that is quite ancient and has a wide range of variants, spellings, and surnames of the same origin. The most basic form of the surname found in printed records is Vick, its most common variant. From there, the spelling variations can diverge quite significantly, to the point where some documents may list an ancestor as Vicken, Vickings, or Vicking.
The surname Vicks can also be spelled as Vix, Vixen, Vickes, Vickers, Vicar, Vicars, Vykes, Wicks, Wix, Wixs, Wickes, Wicke, Wickens, Wichens, and Weekes.
Various surnames of the same origin as Vicks also exist, such as Vickery, Vicary, Vyce, Wixey, Wickery, Wickenshaw, Wickins, Wicken, Wickenbush, Wickerson, Wykes, Wycherley, and Weekman. These additional surnames may have been adopted due to a mistake made by a clerk or from a regional dialect derived from the original name.
The wide range of variants, spellings, and surnames of the same origin for the surname Vicks makes it difficult to find a truly definitive answer, but the variants listed above are generally accepted as being of the same origin.
Famous people with the name Vicks
- Vicki Gunvalson: American television personality and businesswoman
- Vickie Guerrero: American professional wrestling personality, valet, former professional wrestler
- Koda Vicks: Former Professional Dancer, currently a Choreographer/Creative Director
- Cornelius Vicks: American Professional Football player
- Jason Vicks: American actor
- Brooks Vick: Former Professional Tennis player
- Raymond Vicks: American professional Basketball player
- Lancine Vicks: American professional Soccer player
- F. Vicks Williams: American historian, professor, and author
- Michael Vicks: American professional Football player