Stocks Family History

German: variant of Stock. English (Yorkshire): variant of Stock with plural or post-medieval excrescent -s.

In the plural form the surname may also be topographic for someone who lived near tree stumps or habitational from a place so named such as Stocks in Thurstonland (Yorkshire).

It may also denote someone who lived by or operated the obsolete instrument of punishment known as the stocks (Middle English stokkes) owing to its construction from two wooden planks set edgewise one over the other.