Apparently recorded as Pimerick, Pimmick, Pimmocke, and Pimreck, this is an English surname. It would seem to be very rare and locational, although if so we have not been able to positively identify the place from where it originated. This suggests that either it is from a now 'lost' medieval village, or perhaps it is a transposed spelling of somewhere like Pinnock in Gloucestershire or Pinnick in Cornwall. Over the centuries spelling has been at best indifferent, only about ten percent of the British population could even write their own names at the time of the Napoleonic Wars of 1795 - 1815, and it was not until late Victorian times that reading and writing became national. Given as well that local accents were very thick, it is perhaps surprising that anybody ever had their surname spelt correctly. Pinnock or Pinnick comes from the pre 7th century Olde English word 'pennuc' meaning a range of hills, and was the orginal name for Gloucestershire. In this case early examples of the surname recordings in the surviving church registers of the diocese of Greater London include those of Alice Pimmocke who married John Parishe at the church of St Peter le Poer, on May 16th 1651, and Mary Pimreck who married Robert Tourner at St Giles Cripplegate, on August 22nd 1714.

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