This most interesting and unusual surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and derives from either of the Olde English pre 7th Century personal names "Aethelgyeth" or "Aethelgeat"; the latter was not recorded before the Conquest, but was popular afterwards. The former personal name is composed of the elements "aethel", noble, and "-gyth", battle, hence, "noble combat", while the latter name means "noble Geat", from the Olde English "aethel", noble, and "Geat", the masculine form of an old tribal name. Variants of the surname in the modern idiom include Aylett, Allatt, Allett, Allitt, Alliott, Ellyatt and Eliot. Aethelgyth is found recorded as "Adelid, Ailiet, Ailith, Alith" and "Ailad" in the Domesday Book of 1086, while the latter personal name is found recorded there as "Aelget, Elget" and "Eliet". Aeliot Grim is recorded in 1202 in the Assize Court Rolls of Lincolnshire. The surname itself is first recorded in the early 13th Century (see below), while Walter Aliot, Aylet, Thomas Ailot and John Ayllyth all appear in the Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire in 1279. John Aylott married Jone Wynche on April 19th 1655, at St. Lawrence Jewry, London. The Coat of Arms most associated with the name depicts a fesse embattled between three silver unicorns' heads erased, crined and armed gold on a silver shield. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Boydin Ailet, which was dated 1212, in the "Curia Regis Rolls of Nottinghamshire", 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.