This intriguing name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is locational from either a place so called in Lancashire, or Redditch in Worcestershire. The former place is first recorded as 'Rediche' in 'The Red Book of the Exchequer' of 1212, and is derived from the Old English pre 7th Century 'hreod', reeds, and 'dic', a ditch or a dyke, whereas Redditch, first recorded as 'Rubeo Fossato' circa 1200 in Thomas Madox's 'English Formula', may mean red ditch. In the modern idiom the variants include Redish, Raddish and Radish, and the following examples show the name development after 1202 (see below): Mathew de Redish (1260, Cheshire) and Henri Rediche (1573, Lancashire). John Reddish married Anne Greene on September 27th 1573 at Manchester Cathedral, and George Reddish married Ann Jackson on September 14th 1589, also at Manchester Cathedral. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Reddich, which was dated 1202, in the Feet of Fines of Lancashire, 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.

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