Fawkes is a surname of Norman-French origin, first appearing in the British Isles after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. The surname may be a corruption of the Norman surname Vaux, which means valley. Notably, Guy Fawkes was sometimes recorded as Guy Vaux. An alternative origin for the surname is that it originates from the pre-6th century Germanic given name of Falco meaning "falcon". The first recorded spelling of the surname in England is that of one Geoffrey Faukes in 1221.
