Recorded as Strode, Stroud, Strood, Stroder and Strodder, this is an English surname. It has two possible origins. The first is residential or perhaps occupational and describes a person who lived or worked at a "strod" as in the spellings Stroder or Strodder. 'Strod' was a pre 7th century word meaning wet lands overgrown with brushwood. Secondly the name is locational from the town of Stood in Kent, or the two places called Stroud in Gloucestershire and Middlesex. The Kent place was first recorded as Strod in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, dated 889, whereas Stroud in Gloucestershire appeared as La Strode in the Assize Court Rolls of that county in 1221. Both of these places were originally on marshy ground. The surname was first recorded in the early 13th Century as shown below, and other early recordings include Thomas de la Strode of Devon, in the year 1230; William atte Strode, of Worcestershire 1275 and Francis Stroder, at St Michael Bassishaw in the city of London, in 1541. An interesting namebearer was Ralph Strode, (flourished 1350-1400), whose chief reputation was acquired as a philosopher which was a dangerous occupation at a time when John Wycliffe was his colleague. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Aluina de Strodes. This was dated 1206, in the tax rolls of Kent, during the reign of King John, 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.