Recorded as Bacop, Bacup, and the apparently late southern spellings of Bakeup and Bateup, this is an English surname. It is locational from the small town of Bacup, north of Manchester, in Lancashire. This place, which has been the subject of many jokes, has a traditional Olde English origin, its spelling in medieval times being 'Fulbachope'. This translates as 'wild bird ridge above the valley', a possible reference to a place of eagles or buzzards. The 'modern' spelling was first recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Lancashire in the year 1324. Locational surnames are usually 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. Given that at best over the centuries spelling has been erratic and local accents very thick, lead as with this surname to the development of variant or 'sounds like' forms. Early surviving examples of the surname recording in church registers include Alice Bacop of Whalley in Lancashire on November 7th 1728, and James Bakeup at St Katherine's by the Tower (of London), on May 5th 1818.

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