This interesting name, with variant spellings Son, Sone, Soan, Soanes etc., derives from the Medieval English "Sone", (Olde English pre 7th Century "Sunu"), and meaning "son", and was originally used as a distinguishing epithet for a son who shared the same given name as his father. The surname first appears on record at the beginning of the 13th Century (see below). Other early recordings include; James le Sone (Middlesex, 1275); Roger le Son, the 1327 Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk, and Thomas Sonne, the Subsidy Rolls of Derbyshire, (1327). The final "s" on the name indicates the patronymic as in William Sones (Worcestershire, 1327). On February 2nd 1578, Anne Soane and Phillip Stodder were married in the Church of St. Benet Fink, London. An illustrious namebearer was Sir John Soane (1753 - 1837); he was the architect of the Bank of England in 1788, a professor of architecture at the Academy in 1806, and founder of the Soane Museum at Lincoln's Inn Fields. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Sune which was dated 1203, in the "Pipe Rolls of Warwickshire", 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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