Recorded as de Aston, Aston, and the dilalectal Haston, this is an English medieval surname. It has three possible origins. The first is locational from the various places called Aston so called from the pre 7th Century words "East", and "tun", or the settlement to the east of a main village, or in some cases the settlement by the ash trees. Locational names were originally given as a means of identification to those who left their village or place of origin to settle elsewhere. Secondly, the surname may be from some Anglo-Saxon personal name, such as "Aethelstan", composed of "aethel", meaning noble, and "stan", a stone. Asthone de Sancto Luca is noted in the Documents relating to the Danelaw in Lincolnshire in 1140, and Thomas filius Adestan is listed in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire in 1187. Thridly the surname may be topographical for someone who lived by a conspicuous stone, from stan", fused with f the preposition "at". As an example William Astone appears in the calendar of the White and Black Books of the Cinque Ports in the year 1500. Other recordings include Richard Aston christened at St. John's Hackney, on November 8th 1568, and Daniel Haston christened at St James Clerkenwell, on June 5th 1720. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard de Aston. This was dated 1206 in the Curia Regis Rolls of Gloucestershire, 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.