This unusual name is of English locational origin from Coveney in Cambridgeshire. The placename derives either from an Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "cofa" plus "eg", meaning island, or from the Old English word "copa" meaning "bay". Coveney is in an area of former "Fenland", where there may have been a bay on a lake or waterway. The surname is still found mainly in East Anglia though it is also established in Ireland. Locatinal names were spread away from their source by their bearers moving from their original homes to live or work in another town. One Edward Crowe married Elizabeth Coveney in London in 1624. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Coveney, which was dated 1548, in the "Register of the University of Oxford", during the reign of King Edward V1, known as "The Boy King", 1547 - 1553. 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.