[Surname] Re: The name Jacken
by Andy ;—) (guest)
6/16/2008, 4:33 AM
You don't give any background, so I don't know whether it's an English name (which it seems to be). It could be German, too, Jacken is the plural of Jacke (Jacket), but this seems to be pure coincidence. The German phone directory lists some 35 bearers of the name (> about 50). Ancestry.com has 2 British Jackens, 1 each from Russia, Norway, Germany and England.
Jack as the origin of the name sounds plausible, but I would also consider Jacob. In Germany we have Jack, Jackl, Jäckl, Jäckisch, Jäcklin - all from Jakob. (source: R. and V. Kohlheim: Familiennamen, Mannheim 2002)