• Surname has also been spelled as “Holliock, Holiocke, Holiock or Holyocke,” During this period of time, before about the late 1600’s, many writers relied on the spoken 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)