This unusual and interesting name has a number of possible origins, all related but slightly different in emphasis. The first of these is locational,from the placename "Wicken" found in Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire and meaning "place of the dairy-farm". The surname could also be occupational topographical, meaning "One who lives at" or "one who works at the dairy farm". The derivation for all these instances is from the Old English pre 7th Century word "wic", from the Latin "vicus" and meaning an outlying settlement dependant on a larger village and used especially of a dairy-farm in such a location, or sometimes of a salt workers. The surname is found as "Wicken", "Wickens" and "Wickins". One Thomas Wickins was christened at St. Peter's, Cornhill London, in 1667. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas de la Wikin. which was dated 1275, the Norfolk Hundred Rolls. during the reign of King Edward I, The Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. 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.