This interesting surname of English origin is a locational name from Fishbourne in Sussex, which is recorded as Fiseborne in the Domesday Book of 1086, and Fishburn in Durham, deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century "fisc" meaning "fish", plus "burna" "stream", hence "fish stream". The surname dates back to the early 13th Century, (see below). Further recordings include one Ranulf de Fissheburne (1250), "Feodarium Prioratus Dunelmensis" and William Fysshebourn (1332), "The Subsidy Rolls of Sussex". Variations in the idiom of the spelling include Fishbourn, Fishbourne, Fishburne, etc.. One, Thomas Fyscheborne married Elsabethe Powell on July 25th 1561, at St. Margaret, Westminster. Humphry Fishburn married Elizabeth Barnett in 1682, at St. Marylebone, St. Marlebone Street, Marlebone Road, London. One, Alex Fishbourne, together with his wife U, famine emigrants, sailed from Dublin aboard the "Enterprise" bound for New York on April 30th 1847. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard de Fisseburn, which was dated 1206, "The Curia Regis Rolls of Leicestershire", during the reign of King John known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. 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.