This interesting surname of Anglo-Saxon origin with variant spellings, Pointin, Pointon, Ponting, etc., is a dialectal variant of the locational name Pointon in Lincolnshire, deriving from the Olde English personal name "Pohha" plus "ing" "people of" plus "tun" meaning "farm", hence "the tun of Pohha's people" or from Poynton in Cheshire, deriving from the Olde English personal name "Pun or Puna" plus "ing" plus "tun". The surname dates back to the mid 12th Century (see below). Further recordings include Jordan de Poyngtun (circa 1200) "Registrum Antiguissimum", and Alice de Poynton (1344) "The Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls preserved among the Archives of the City of London". Church records include William Pointing who married Margery Pavin on May 28th 1672 at St. Marylebone, St. Mary Street, Marylebone Road, London, and Maria Pointing was christened on December 13th 1673 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster. One William Pointon, a famine emigrant, sailed from Liverpool aboard the "Sea" bound for New York on June 23rd 1847. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alexander de Pochintun, which was dated circa 1155, Transcripts of Charters relating to the Gilbertine Houses, during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. 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.