This interesting name is a dialectual variant of the metonymic occupational name Poke, which derives from the Middle English 'poke' a purse or bag. Thus it describes a maker of bags and purses or possibly a nickname for one who carried a distinctive bag. In the modern idiom the forms include Poucher, Pouch, Pougher and Poche. Recorded in London is the christening of an infant one John Pockett at St. Giles, Cripplegate, in 1664. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Geoffrey Poket, which was dated 1210, Curia Rolls Cambridgeshire, during the reign of King John, Lackland, 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.