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The Tucker surname probably has Saxon roots. The Saxons were a North Germanic people living in what is now northwestern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands.
The name was spelled Tucker or Tooker in England and comes from the Old English, pre-7th Century verb tucian, meaning "to torment." It would have referred to a fuller, also known as a walker: one who softened freshly-woven cloth by beating and tramping it in water.
The word tucker is also assumed to be related to the German tucher,'which means "towel-maker." In the 15th Century the bulk of the German cotton trade was in the hands of the Tucker family in Nurnberg where Tucher Castle still stands.
In Old Duch the word tuchwas often used as a verb meaning "to tug sharply." Over the centuries the Dutch form of the surname has been spelled both Tucker as well as Tukker.
Tucker can also be an Anglicized form of the Irish surname O'Tuachair, meaning the male descendant of a brave one. Variants include Toher, Togher, and Tougher.
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