Last name COOK: origin and meaning

Cook : 1: English: occupational name for a cook a seller of cooked meats or a keeper of an eating house from Middle English cok coke cook couk cuk(e) (Old English cōc) ‘cook’ or ‘seller of cooked foods’. See also Kew.2: Irish and Scottish: usually identical in origin with the English name (see 1 above) but in some cases a shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cúg ‘son of Hugo’ (see McCook).3: Americanized form (translation into English) of various European surnames meaning ‘cook’ such as German and Jewish Koch Dutch Kook Polish Kucharz and Kucharczyk Slovenian and Croatian Kuhar North German Kuk.4: Americanized form of Slovenian Croatian and Polish Kuk.5: Americanized form (mistranslation into English) of French Lécuyer ‘squire’ (see Lecuyer).6: Americanized form of Korean and especially Chinese (Cantonese) Kuk 5-9 or of its variant Kook 3-6.

Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
FANBI : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain, ©2021, University of the West of England
FANBI : The Oxford Dictionary if Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ©2016, University of the West of England