Recorded in several spellings including Born, Bourn, Borne, and the occupational Borner, this is an English surname. It has two possible orgins. The first is locational from one of the many places called Born or Bourn, or it was topographical and pre 7th century Olde English, and describes somebody who lived or in the case of Borner worked "atte burna". Whilst "burna" strictly means a small river or stream, it was also a term used to define a stream which was the parish or village boundary limit. Amongst the early recordings is that of William atte Borne, of Somerset in 1327. Secondly the surname may also be a nickname. In this case the derivation is from the Olde French word "borgne" meaning "one-eyed". The recordings from this source are earlier and include William le Borne in 1164 and Waltere le Borne of 1185, in the Pipe Rolls of the county of Dorset. These recordings appear in conjunction with that of Simon Monoculus, from the Latin mono meaning one, and oculus - an eye! Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes 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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