This is an Anglo-Saxon personal name of the pre 8th Century with developed into a medieval surname. It derives from the Olde German "Idja", a word translating as "to work or to be industrious". The personal name was equally popular for both male and female, and remained so with the Norman Invaders of 1066. It died out completely in the 15th Century being revived to some popularity after 1847 when Tennysons poem "The Princess Ida" appeared. The surname was always rare and may be locational from the village of Ide near Exeter in Devon, although not recorded in that county before 1831, when William Ide was christened at Thorveton Church on the 20th of February of that year. In the modern idiom the surname has several spelling variations including: Ide, Ida and the diminutive Ikin. Richard Ikin married Elizabeth Stone in London in 1583, whilst Anthony Ide married Margaret Sorrell at St. Gabriel's Church, London on June 14th 1599. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Idekyne, which was dated 1324, in the "Warwick Pipe Rolls", during the reign of King Edward ll, known as "Edward of Caernafon" 1307 - 1327. 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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