This long-established surname is of early medieval English origin, although also widely recorded in Sweden. It is a patronymic form of the Hebrew male given name "Avraham", and translates as "the father of the nation". This name was borne by the first of the Jewish patriarchs. However Abraham in its European origins is not Jewish, and there is an entry in the 1086 Domesday Book as being the name of a priest in the established chrurch. It is almost certain that the name owes its origination to the returning Crusaders from the Holy Land, who named their later off-spring with biblical names in honour of their fathers visit. As an example Abraham de Stradtuna was recorded in the 1170 Danelaw Rolls of Lincolnshire, whilst John Abraham is recorded in the Hundred rolls of Bedford in 1273. The first recording as 'Abrahamson' is in Scotland Gilfulain Habrahamson being recorded as 'banished from Perth' in the year 1471. Just what his crime was is unclear. The Coat of Arms most associated with the name is a shield lozengy gold and red, on a black chief the sun in his splendour, gold, the Crest being a cap of maintenance decorated with a plume of ostrich feathers, all proper. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Abram, which was dated 1252, in the "Chartulary of the Monastery of Ramsey", Huntingdonshire, during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.