This unusual and interesting surname is French and Anglo-Irish. It derives from the male given name Guerin, from the pre 6th century German Warin, meaning guard. This name was popular in France partly as a result of the fame of the Carolingian knight Guerin de Montglave. It was initially introduced into England after the Norman Conquest of 1066, with Robertus filius Warin being recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 for the county of Cambridgeshire and a Gislebertus filius Garin in the Domesday Book for Essex. Gilbert Warin in the Curia Regis Rolls of Yorkshire in 1198 is the earliest recorded hereditary bearer of the name. The name was subsequently re-introduced into the British Isles by French Huguenot refugees fleeing religious persecution in their own country, following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by King Lous X1V on October 22nd 1685. On July 26th 1696, Daniel, son of Francois Guerin and Janne Pater, was christened at Glasshouse Street and Leicester Fields French Huguenot Church, London. The surname is also widespread in the Irish county of Limerick and Kerry where it takes the spellings of Geran and Gerin. It was introduced into Ireland after the conquest of the county by Strongbow, easrly of Pembroke in the year 1170, but also be a form of the Gaelic O' Gearain, meaning the descendant of the sharp one! Amongst the early surviving recordings in France itself, most were destroyed in the 1792 Revolution, is that of Didier Guerin. He was a christening witness on February 15th 1585, at Loromon, Meurthe-et-Moselle, during the reign of Henry 111rd of France, 1574 - 1589. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes 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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