Bok (surname)

Bok
Language(s)Chinese (Hokkien), Dutch, German, Swedish
Origin
Meaning
  • Dutch and German: "billy goat"
  • Swedish: "beech"

Bok is a surname.

Origins

As a Chinese surname, Bok transcribes the Hokkien pronunciations of various surnames spelled in Mandarin Pinyin as Mu (e.g. 牧, "herder"; 穆, "elegant") or Mo (莫).[1] Hokkien spellings of Chinese surnames are often found in Malaysia and Singapore, where many descendants of Chinese migrants can trace their roots to the Fujian province of China.[2]

The Dutch surname Bok comes from the Dutch word for billy goat, bok.[3] Similarly, the Jewish surname Bok, a variant spelling of Bock, originated from the German word for billy goat, Bock.[4]

Bok is also a Slovenian surname, of unexplained origin.[3]

As a Swedish surname, Bok originated as an ornamental surname, from the Swedish word for beech, bok.[3]

Statistics

In the Netherlands, there were 1,751 people with the surname Bok and five with the surname Bók as of 2007, up from 1,197 in 1947.[5]

The 2000 South Korean Census found 8,644 people in 2,663 households with the surname Bok; 7,471 of those were members of the Myeoncheon bon-gwan.[6]

The 2010 United States Census found 738 people with the surname Bok, making it the 31,383rd-most-common name in the country. This represented an increase from 599 (35,522nd-most-common) in the 2000 Census. In the 2010 census, 73.71% of the bearers of the surname identified as White, and 21.41% as Asian.[7]

Notable people with the surname
  • Bart Bok (1906–1983), Dutch-born American astronomer
  • Benjamin Bok (born 1995), Dutch chess grandmaster
  • Chip Bok (born 1952), American cartoonist
  • Christian Bök (born 1966), Canadian experimental poet
  • Curtis Bok (1897–1962), Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice
  • Derek Bok (born 1930), American lawyer and president of Harvard University
  • Diederiekje Bok (born 1980), Dutch artist
  • Edward Bok (1863–1930), Dutch-born American publisher, author, and editor of Ladies' Home Journal
  • Erika Bók (fl. 1994–2011), Hungarian actress
  • Francis Bok (born 1979), Dinka tribesman and abolitionist
  • Bok Geo-il (born 1946), South Korean novelist
  • Gideon Bok (born 1966), American painter
  • Gordon Bok (born 1939), American folklorist and singer-songwriter
  • Hannes Bok (1914–1964), pen name of American illustrator Wayne Woodard
  • Henri Bok (born 1950), Dutch bass clarinetist
  • Hilary Bok (born 1959), American author and professor of philosophy
  • Kenzie Bok (born 1989), American local politician in Boston
  • Marike Bok (1943–2017), Dutch portrait painter
  • Martijn Bok (born 1973), Dutch tennis player
  • Priscilla Fairfield Bok (1896–1975), American astronomer
  • Richard Bok (born 1969), Singaporean soccer coach
  • Sissela Bok (born 1934), Swedish-born American philosopher and ethicist
  • Willem Eduard Bok (1846–1904), Dutch-born South African Boer politician
  • Willem Eduard Bok Jr. (1880–1956), South African lawyer, son of the above

See also
  • Bok (disambiguation)

References
  1. Medhurst, Walter Henry (1832). A dictionary of the Hok-këèn dialect of the Chinese language, according to the reading and colloquial idioms. East India Company Press. pp. 30–32.
  2. Jones, Russel (August 1959). "Chinese Names: Notes on the use of surnames & personal names by the Chinese in Malaya". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 32 (187). JSTOR 41505683.
  3. Hanks, Patrick, ed. (2003). Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press. p. 186. ISBN 9780199771691.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  4. Hanks 2003, p. 178
  5. "Bok". Nederlandse Familienamenbank. Centrum voor familiegeschiedenis. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  6. "행정구역(구시군)/성씨·본관별 가구 및 인구" [Family names by administrative region (district, city, county): separated by bon-gwan, households and individuals]. Korean Statistical Information Service. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  7. "How common is your last name?". Newsday. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
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