This very unusual name has a long history back to at least the late Middle Ages. It is unusual as well in that the original spellings of Shory, Shorey, and Shorie have been retained unchanged over the centuries. The original name was habitational and did describe a person who lived on the sea shore, as in Adam de Schore, recorded in the 1379 Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls. The slightly later spellings with the suffix 'y' or ey' or 'ie' are a form of medieval English patronymic which gives the meaning 'son of schore'. The name recordings include Caleb Shorey (1601, Stepney) and Alles Shorie (1609, City of London). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Janie Shory, which was dated January 24th 1563, married George Quernedell at the church of St. Dunstan's, Eastcheap, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as 'Good Queen Bess', 1558 - 1603. 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.