This picturesque name is of Anglo-Saxon English origin and is topographical for a person living on or near either "Goda's" cultivated land, or cultivated land of good quality. The derivation for the former possibility is from the Old English personal name "Goda", and "aecer", a field of cultivated land, thus "Godas acre", and for the latter, from the Old English pre 7th Century "god", meaning good. Topographical names are some of the earliest names to be created, as topographical features, whether natural or manmade, provided obvious and convenient means of identification. On record in Westminster Abbey is the marriage of Oliver Goodacre and Mary Kellum on October 17th 1697. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Goodacres, which was dated October 25th 1576, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, "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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