This interesting surname has two origins; firstly, it may be of medieval German origin, and a topographical name for someone who lived by a beech tree or beech wood, deriving from the Germanic "buche", a development of the Middle High German "buohe". Topographical surnames were among the earliest created, since both natural and man- made features in the landscape provided easily recognisable distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages. Secondly, it may be of Anglo-Saxon origin, a locational name from Bocking in Essex, deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century given name "Bocca", plus "ing", people of, tribe. The placename is recorded as "Boccinge" in the Anglo-Saxon Wills register of the year 995 a.d, and as "Bochinges" in the famous Domesday Book of 1086. Variations in the spelling of the surname include Bocken, Bockin, Boken, Boxen and others. Church Records list the christenings of John Bocking, on December 3rd 1571 at St. Margaret's, Lothbury, London, and of Johanes Georg, son of Johanens Bocking, on October 15th 1753, in Neunkirchen, Westfalen, Germany. A coat of arms associated with the surname has the blazon of a silver field, a black fesse nebulee between six red crosses crosslet. 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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