This interesting surname, of English origin, is a locational name from Pinnock in Gloucestershire, deriving from the diminutive "pennuc" or "pennoc", from the ancient British (the extinct Celtic language of the ancient Britons) "pen" meaning "hill". The placename is recorded as "Pignoscire" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Pinnok" in the Calendar of the Close Rolls of 1248. It may also be a nickname for a person bearing a fancied resemblance to the bird the hedge-sparrow, deriving from the Middle English "pinnock". The surname dates back to the late 12th Century (see below). Further recordings include one Walter Pinnok (1255), in the Hundred Rolls of Wiltshire, and William Pinnoc (1273), in the Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire. Variations in the idiom of the spelling include Pinock, Pinnick, and Pinnocke. The London Church records include one Denise, daughter of John Pinock, who was christened on August 18th 1593, at St. Margaret's, Westminster, and Sarah Pinnock, daughter of William, who was christened on April 10th 1614, at St. James' Clerkenwell. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Nicholas Pinnoch, which was dated 1199, in the "Pipe Rolls of Wiltshire", 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.