• Surname has also been spelled as “Holliock, Holiocke, Holiock or Holyocke,” however, he signed his will with “Holyoke.” That being said, in other documents, his surname was spelled in several different ways, including one document where the spelling of his surname were three different spellings all in one document. During this period of time, before about the late 1600’s, many writers relied on the phonetic / pronunciation because literacy rate of most people of the time was quite low.

• The surname HOLYOKE and all of its variant forms seem to be derived from the holy oak, or gospel oak, an archaic term for a boundary tree. In Anglo-Saxon it is ““hálig āc” (Holy Oak)