'Pied-cock'

Validated by its use on the Pidcock Coat of Arms. Charles Pidcock (1809-1896) was granted the Armorial Bearings of the Pidcock family by patent dated September 10th 1852. The acorns, the bar-shot, and the motto, "SEIGNEUR JE TE PRIE GARDE MA VIE", are derived from the Henzey bearings, the cock is allusive to the name, and the griffin segreant is the crest of Hamond. The Henzey family were Hugenot glass makers known to have settled near Worcestershire in the early 17th century. William Pidcock (1667-1724) married Elizabeth Henzey (1675-1744), heiress to the Henzey family of glassmakers. Hamond was the family name of Charles' maternal greatgrandmother.

Diminuative of Given Name

David Hey says, "another way of creating a pet name, from the twelfth century onwards, was to add the suffix -cock to a shortened form of one of the personal names", but not to be confused with nicknames from birds, such as Peacock. Ancestry.com offers spelling variations: English (Leicestershire): from a Middle English pet form (with the diminutive suffix -cok) of an unattested Old English personal name, Pydda. The Surname Dictionary gives the 'Pid' and 'Pit' bits from old English names of 'Pydda' and Pytta'. In early English the 'pyde' sometimes meant 'paid'.

Suffix meaning "son of"

College of Heraldry says that "cock" as a suffix means "son of" and that Pidcock could be "son of Peter". The Flemish equivalent of Peter is Piet or Pieter. Maybe our progeniture was Pieter was a merchant from Flanders leading to Gilbert Pyttecocke mentioned in 1298 Cambridgeshire.

Nickname

'Cock' was also a nickname given to a boy who "strutted" like a cockeral, so there are several ways 'cock' could have become part of the names Pidcock and Pitcock. The 'pied' bit could refer to a person who liked to wear bright or many colours, so the name could be given to someone who strutted about wearing bright or many coloured clothing, so it is possible that in this way it could refer to several separate origins for the name. However the early records spell it as 'Pydecock(e)' or 'Pytecock(e)'.

Occurrences of the Name

Surnames began in England shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066, but it was 2-3 centuries before they became common.  In the 11th, 12th and early 13th centuries family names became used among the nobility but the majority were known simply by their christian names.  It was only as the population increased, and especially after the 'Black Death' of 1347-1350, that surnames came into general use.  The Poll Tax lists that survive from 1379 show many still without a proper surname, being known by the job they did, where they lived or whose son they were; these were the early origins of surnames.

Our name is mentioned back to the 13th century according to the 'A Dictionary of English Surnames' by P.H. Reaney and R.M. Wilson.:

PIDCOCK: Adam Pydecock 1301 SRY (Subsidy Rolls, Yorkshire); Robert Pydecock 1306 AssW (Assize Rolls, Wiltshire).
PITCOCK: Pitecoc, filius Sononis 1221 AssWa (Assize Rolls, Warwickshire); William Pitecok 1301 (Estate surveys of the Fitzalan Earls of Arundel, Sussex); Henry Pitecok 1332 SRWa (Subsidy Rolls, Warwickshire).