This name, with variant spellings Dorbin, Durbin, Durban etc., is of French locational origin from Durban, a place in Narbonne, (Department of Aude in the Languedoc - Ruoussillon region of Southern France). The surname under its variant forms is particularly well recorded in church registers of kent and London from the mid 16th Century, (see below). On June 7th 1586, Bartholomew Durban and Anne Heneker were married in Goodnestone by Sandwich, Kent, and on May 30th 1601 Mary Durbin, an infant was christened in St. Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street, London. A Coat of Arms granted to the Durban family of Languedoc is recorded heraldically in Rietstap's Armorial General and has four red bars on a silver field. The bar is the diminutive of the fess and represents the girdle worn around a warrior's waist. On June 6th 1794 Sarah Dorbin and Henry Pelham were married in Canterbury, Kent, and on December 8th 1811 Edward Dorbon, an infant, was christened in St. Pancras Old Church, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Joane Durbone (marriage to William Southland), which was dated July 8th 1560, in St. Alphege, Canterbury, Kent, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "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.

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