Clark: A Surname History (Paperback)

Description

Clark: A Surname History — Volume 31 of The Surname Histories Series. The clerk — the scribe, scholar, secretary, recorder, or cleric: Greek klērikos → Church Latin clericus → Old French clerc → Middle English clerk/clark. Clark stands #27 in the 2010 U.S. Census with 562,679 bearers and a 19.02% Black share — the highest Black share of any British-origin surname in the series — sitting directly behind Sánchez at #26 and completing the series’ seven-book running echo (Lee #21 → Pérez #22 → Thompson #23 → White #24 → Harris #25 → Sánchez #26 → Clark #27). The signature story is William Clark (1770–1838) of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, told honestly — the genuine achievement alongside the slavery and the dispossession; a gallery of twenty remarkable bearers runs from George Rogers Clark and Tom C. Clark to Mark W. Clark and Ramsey Clark; four lineage coats of arms — the Shirland swords, Dunham’s swans, Sir James Clark’s falcon, and the Feltre stars, drawn from the printed pages of Burke’s General Armory and Rietstap’s Armorial général — show why no single coat of arms belongs to a surname; and a gazetteer of Clark places maps Clark County NV, Clarksville TN, Clark County WA, Clarksdale MS, and Clark University.