Many explanations have been given of the suffix -cock, but I cannot say that any of them have convinced me. Both Cock and the patronymic Cocking are found as early personal names. The suffix was added to the shortened form of font-names, e.g. Alcock (Allen), Hitchcock (Richard), was apparently felt as a mere diminutive, and took an -s like the diminutives in -kin, e.g. Willcocks, Simcox. In Hedgecock, 'Woodcock, etc., it is of course a nickname. The modern Cox is one of our very common names, and the spelling Cock, Cocks, Cox, can be found representing three generations in the churchyard of Invergowrie, near Dundee.
The two names Bawcock and Meacock had once a special significance. Pistol, urged to the breach by Fluellen, replies
"Good bawcock, bate thy rage! use lenity, sweet chuck"
(Henry V., iii, 2);
and Petruchio, pretending that his first interview with Katherine has been most satisfactory, says—
"'Tis a world to see
How tame, when men and women are alone,
A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew."
(Taming of the Shrew, ii.1.)
These have been explained as Fr. beau coq, which is possible, and meek cock, which is absurd. As both words are found as surnames before Shakespeare's time, it is probable that they are diminutives which were felt as suited to receive a special connotation, just as a man who treats his thirst generously is vulgarly called a Lushington. Bawcock can easily be connected with Baldwin, while Meacock, Maycock, belong to the personal name May or Mee, shortened from the Old Fr. Mahieu (Chapter IX).