This very interesting name has the same root origins as 'Cobb', 'Cob' or Cobbe', which is to say that it is a derivative of the original christian name Jacob. The name (as Jacob) is rarely found before the 1066 Norman Conquest, and then only for clerics, but thereafter its popularity spread rapidly. James and Jacob were originally the same name, and much confusion arose with the use of the name as 'Jacobus', which can be either. The surname development includes Jakoby, and this is probably the 'link' name with the modern spellings of Cobby (1629, Anne Cobb, married walter Caniel at St. Mary the Virgin, London) and Coby (Robert Coby, St. Dunstans, London, 1631). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Cobbie, which was dated 1585, married Katherine Davies at St. Botolphs, London, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Good Queen Bess, 1558 - 1603. 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.