This unusual English patronymic surname is a development from the pre 7th century personal name 'Sige-raed'. Meaning "Victory-counsel" it is composed of the elements "sige" meaning victory, and "roed", counsel. Whether this may have originally described a sort of army staff officer, one who gave wise counsel in the event of war, is unclear. What is clear is that the surname is one of the earliest on record (see below) and that in the modern idiom, the spelling forms include Sirette, Sired, Syred, Syrad, Syratt, Syvrett and possibly others. Early examples of the name recording go back as far as the Domesday Book of 1086, although the recordings as Siret and Sired are baptismal, the first surname being as below. Other examples include Roger Syred in the Suffolk Rolls of 1306, and Roger Syrad of Norfolk in the Hundred Rolls of 1273. Later examples from the church records include in 1722, John Syrett who married Susanna Hippeth at St. Mary Aldermary, London, and in 1760 John Green married Elizabeth Siret at St Georges Chapel, Hanover Square. The coat of arms, granted in the Channel Islands, has the blazon of a black field, charged with a silver lion rampant. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Sired, which was dated 1197, in the Pipe Rolls of the county of Kent, during the reign of King Richard 1, known as 'The Lionheart', 1189 - 1199. 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.