This name, with variant spellings Kline, Kleine, Kleyn, Klehn etc., derives from the German or the Dutch "Klein", meaning "small" and was originally given as a nickname to one of slight stature. In some instances, the name may be Ashkenazic from the Hebrew "kleyn" also meaning "small", and regularly appears in such compound names as Kleinhandler, literally "a small trader", and Kleinplatz, (a small place). Klein and its variants is particularly well recorded in London church registers from the early 18th Century, (see below). On July 14th 1765 Catharine Kleine and Godfrey Katchner were married in St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, London, and on February 7th 1785 Anna Maria Klein and Peter Bour were married in St. Marylebone Road. On June 15th 1853 Elizabeth Klein married a Franz Ferdinand Ochs in St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Augustus Kline, (christening), which was dated November 9th 1722, St. Martin in the Fields, London, during the reign of King George 1, known as "The First Hanoverian", 1714 - 1727. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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