Recorded in many forms including Gidden, Giddens, Gidding, Giddings, Gedding, Geddings, Gittens, Gittins, Gutans, Guttans, and possibly others, this is an English surname. It is locational from the places called Gidding in Huntingdonshire and Gedding in Suffolk, respectively. The placenames are both recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Geddinge", and share the same meaning and derivation, which is "the place of Gydda's people". This is derived from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name "Gydda", with the Old English suffix "ingas", meaning "people or family of". Locational surnames were usually 'from' names. That is to say names given particularly to those former inhabitants of a place who moved to live in another area. Given that spelling was at best rudimentary and dialects very thick, generally lead to the development as with this name, of 'sounds like' spellings some far removed from the original source. Early examples of frecordings include that on December 13th 1640, of Thomas Giddens who was christened at Abington Pigotts, Cambridge and Elizabeth, daughter of James and Mercy Geddins who was christened on August 11th 1683, at St. Botolph's Bishopsgate, in the city of London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Geddingge. This was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls of Suffolk, during the reign of King Edward 1st of England, and known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307.

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