This interesting surname of English origin is a locational name from a place so called in Suffolk, deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name Be(a)da, plus "ing" meaning "people" plus "feld" "open country", "plain", "land free from wood", hence "the feld of Be(a)da's people". The surname dates back to the mid 16th Century, (see below). Variations in the idiom of the spelling include Bedingfeild married Margaret Pearsey on April 17th 1607, at St. James, Clerkenwell, London. Doratha, daughter of Neavell and Catlin Bedingfield, was christened at St. Bride, Fleet St., London, on May 24th 1658, and Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony and Mary Bedingfield, was christened on December 17th 1678, at St. Dunstan, Stepney. Sir Henry Bedingfield (1633-1687) was chief-justice of common pleas. He was called to the bar at lincoln's Inn (1657) received the coif (1683), King's Serjeant and knighted, sub-steward of Great Yarmouth (1684), judge (1686), and chief justice of common pleas (1686). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Edward Bedingfeild married Annie Southwell, which was dated 1555, "St. Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey", during the reign of Queen Mary, "Bloody Mary", 1553 - 1558. 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.