Recorded as Noe, Noy, Noye, Noyce, Noyse, Noice, Noyes, and possibly others, this is an English medieval surname. However spelt it is a patronymic form of the biblical male given name Noah from the Hebrew word "noach" meaning long-lived. The are two possible origins for the surname. The first is as an Introduction into Europe by the returning Crusaders knights of the 12th century, fresh from their many attempts to rescue the city of Jerusalem from the hands of the Muslims. It became the fashion for these returning warriors to christen their subsequent children with biblical or hebrew names, which later developed into surnames. The second possibity is the name of an actor who played the part of Noah in the medieval miracle plays based on the story of Noah and his ark. The forename is first recorded as Noe in the Staffordshire Chartulary of the year 1125, whilst the surname is well recorded in the surviving London church registers from the Elizabethan times. These recordings include those of Alice Noyes who married an Edmund Holmes at the church of St. Katherine by the Tower (of London) on June 16th 1661, and Richard Noice, who was christened at St Peter-le-Poer, on July 5th 1730. The first recorded spelling of the family name is thought to be that of Thomas Noe, in the register of the Knight Templars (Crusaders) for the county of Warwickshire in the year 1185, and during the reign of King Henry 11nd of England, 1154 - 1189. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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