This name has two possible origins, the first being a locational name from a place thus called in Northumberland. The name derives from the Olde Norse elements "Lo", a sandpiper, plus "Riarr", a marsh, hence "wetland frequented by sandpipers". The surname from this source is first recorded in the mid 13th Century, (see below). The second distinct possibility is that the name derives from the Medieval English "luken", itself coming from the Olde English pre 7th Century "locian", "to look", and originally given as an occupational name to someone employed to "look out" i.e. a watchman or keeper of animals. One, Robert Loukek appears in the 1327 "Subsidy Rolls of Somerset". In the "modern" idiom, the name is spelt Looker, Loker and Luker. One Frances, daughter of John Looker, was christened at St. Margaret, Westminster in 1622, and Francis Looker married Katherine Stronte at St. Michael's, Cornhall, London, on August 29th 1686. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Simon de (of) Lucre, witness, which was dated 1256 The Assize Court Rolls of Northumberland, during the reign of King Henry 111, "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.