This surname of English origin with variant spellings Stroude, Strood, Strode, etc., is a locational name from Strood in Kent, Stroud in Gloucestershire, or Stroud Green in Middlesex, deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century "strod" meaning "marshy land overgrown with brushwood". The surname dates back to the early 13th Century (see below). Further recordings include Thomas de la Strode, and William Strodde (1230) in the Pipe Rolls of Devonshire. Church Records show one Susan, daughter of Roberte Stroude who was christened on June 18th 1598 in St. Dunstan's, Stepney, London, and Gilbert Stroud who married Mary Loveloy on October 22nd 1622 in St. Stephan's, Coleman Street, London. William Stroud, aged 40 yrs., a famine emigrant, sailed from Liverpool aboard the "Sardinia" bound for New York on May 21st 1847. A Coat of Arms granted to the family depicts a silver wivern on a black shield, and a red crescent on a canton ermine. A wivern is an imaginary heraldic animal, the wings and upper part resembling a dragon, the lower part resembling an adder or snake. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Aluina de Strodes which was dated 1206, in the "Feet of Fines of Kent", 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.