Numerous spellings. Most authorities agree that Sykes is a togographic surname, in other words it describes a feature in the landscape, and in this case it implies “a water course, a stream, ditch or dike”. In modern usage the word “dike” seems to have replaced “sike”, but modern maps still show plenty of small steams called “sike”. However, there is a wide variation of possible features that could have given rise to the surname Sikes. These are discussed below.