Recorded as Tremain, Tremaine, Treamayne, Tremayne, and possibly others, this is a surname of Celtic origin. It is locational, and almost certainly from the parish of Tremaine, in the county of Cornwall, although there are two places with similar spelling in Wales. The first is Tremaine in the county of Dyfed, and the second Tremains, a place in Glamorgan. However we have no definate evidence that either place was an originator of this name. What is certain it that the three places have much the same meaning of a house, homestead, or possibly a church, by a stone, from the Olde English and Welsh pre 7th century 'tre-men'. Obviously the name refers to a specific stone of some size, probably used as a tribal, parish or even a county boundary. During the Middle Ages, when it was becoming more usual for people to migrate further afield from their birthplace in search of work, they would adopt the name of their original home, as a means of identification. This resulted in a wide dispersal of the surname. Amongst the sample early recordings in Cornwall is the christening of Thomas Tremain on May 30th 1543 at St. Columb Major, the marriage of Margareta Tremaine and Thoma Davis on January 30th 1556 at Kilkhampton, and that of Nicholas Tremayne. This latter recording was dated 1562, in the Calender of the Patent Rolls of Cornwall. 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.

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