Sykes Family History

English (Yorkshire and Lancashire): topographic name for someone who lived near a small watercourse especially one flowing through flat or marshy ground or near a gully dip or hollow from Middle English sik(e) ‘stream ditch’ (Old Norse sík).

Early and later examples of the surname occur in alternate singular and plural forms. It is the plural or -s form that has become the general usage as a surname, perhaps reinforced by the common practice in the post-medieval period of adding excrescent -s to topographic surnames with an original singular form.

By the 16th century the name had spread by migration into the North Midlands. Elsewhere, only Norfolk seems to have produced this name independently but its survival into the present day is uncertain.

Compare Sitch which once flourished in the West Midlands and derives from an equivalent word, Middle English sich, of Old English origin.