This interesting surname with variant forms Legod, Legood, Leagood, etc., is a nickname for a good person, deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century "god" meaning "good". It may also have derived from a medieval male given name Goda, or female given name Gode, which was in part a byname and in part a short form of various compound names with the first element "god". The Anglo Norman French definite article "le" is often found in medieval records. The surname dates back to the early 13th Century, (see below). Further recordings include Thomas le Goude (1327), the "Subsidy Rolls of Sussex". Church records show one Benjamin Legood who married Elizabeth Melton on November 11th 1773 at St. Matthew's, Bethnal Green, London, and Elizabeth Harris Legood who married James Harrod Burrell on September 2nd 1834 in St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, London. Robert, son of Robert and Elizabeth Legood, was christened at St. Bartholomew's, Moor Lane, London on July 29th 1860. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Gilbert le Gode, which was dated 1212, "Curia Regis Rolls of Buckinghamshire", 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.