This is not quite so obvious a name as it may first appear. It is a national regional surname, but its origins are Germanic, deriving from the tribes of North Germany known as the "Angles". These were the people who invaded the Eastern and Northern counties of Britain in the 5th and 6th Centuries, and thereby gave their name to East Anglia and subsequently "England". The word "Englise" was originally used by the British to distinguish Angles from Saxons, but by the time surnames were being created it may well have distinguished an "Englishman" as opposed to the native Celt in such areas as the border counties of Wales and Scotland. After 1066 the description may also have served to mark the difference between the Anglo-Saxon and the all-conquering Norman-French invaders of King William 1st. Early examples of the surname recordings include William de Engelond, in the 1295 Assize Rolls of Chester, a name which suggests that a village or site called 'Engelond' once existed somewhere, and John Ingelond in the 1327 Subsidy Rolls of the county of Essex. Later recordings include Joesph Ingland who married Anne Smith at St James church, Clerkenwell, London, on April 5th 1668, and George Pike England (1754 - 1814), who built the organ for Durham Cathedral. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Nicholas de Engelond which was dated 1260, in the rolls of the Assize Court of Cambridge, during the reign of King Henry III, known as 'The Frenchman', 1216 - 1272. 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.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2024