This interesting surname with variant spellings Stode, Stot, Stott, etc.. is derived from the Medieval English 'Stott' meaning a bullock and was originally given as a metonymic occupational name to a keeper of the animals. The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 12th Century, (see below). One John Stotte appears in the 1296 'Subsidy Rolls of Sussex'. The following quotation from Whitaker's 'History and Antiquities of Craven', (Yorkshire) reads, 'The live stock at Bolton Abbey (1526) included XX Oxen, X11 Wedders, 1X Tuppes, XXV1 Stotts'. Recordings include one Francis Stode who was christened at St. Matthew, Friday street, London, on January 2nd 1629, and Thomas, son of Thomas Stodd was christened at St. Leonards, Shoreditch, London on October 29th 1797. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Gamel Stot, which was dated 1165, in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire, during the reign of King Henry 11, known as the Builders of Churches, 1154 - 1189. 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.