Recorded in various spellings including Parrin, Perin, Perrin, Pering, Perrins, Perron, Perrun and others, this is an English surname, although arguably of French and Greek origins. It derives from the male given name Perrin, itself a diminutive of Perre or Pierre, the French forms of the Greek Petros, meaning The rock. The name was extremely popular throughout Christian Europe in the Middle Ages, largely due to St. Peter, regarded as the founding father of the Christian Church, and Christ's pronouncement, "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church". "Petrus", the Latinized form of the name, appears (without surname) in the English Domesday Book of 1086, and Perrinus Uadletus was noted in the pipe rolls of the county of Northamptonshire in 1207. Early examples of the hereditary surname include Geoffrey Perrun of Lincolnshire in the Knight Templar (Crusader) rolls of the year 1185; Henry Piron of Oxfordshire in 1194; John Pirun of Wiltshire in 1255; and John Perin of Cambridgeshire in the Hundred Rolls of that county in 1273. Some bearers of the name may be of French Huguenot extraction, their ancestors having entered Britain as refugees fleeing religious persecution in their own county in the 16th and 17th Centuries. As an example of the many recordings we have Marin Perin, who was christened at the Threadneedle French Huguenot Church, in the city of London in 1639, whilst Michael Perring married Mary Spencer at St Mary's Tottenham, on October 1st 1702. The first recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of John Pirun. This was dated 1166, in the Pipe Rolls of Gloucestershire, 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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