Simon

Recorded in over one hundred surname spellings throughout Europe, this interesting surname is of pre- written historical origins. It ultimately derives from the Hebrew personal name Shimeon, meaning "one who harkens". The surname forms include Simon, Simco, Simcoe, Simko (English), Simeon, Siomon, Schimon (Jewish), Simeoni (Italian), Si, Sias, and Simao (German and Polish), Schimann (Czech), Ziemen (Prussian), and the national diminutives and patronymics such as Simonson, (England), Simonett (France), Simonetti (Italy), Siaspinski and Siaskowski (Polish-German) Ziemke (German), Ziemecki (Slavonic), Semeniuk (Ukraine), and many, many, others. In England the name generally takes the form of Simon, partly as a result of association with the pre-existing Greek byname from "simos", meaning snub-nosed. The first European recording of Simon as a personal name is probably that of Simonus, a monk, in the register of St. Benets, Holme Abbey, Norfolk, England, in the year 1134. The surname first appears in the latter half of the 13th Century (see below), and includes Pieter Ziemke of Hamburg, Germany, in 1289, and William Simon in the Calendar of Letter Books of the City of London in 1292. Other recordings from medieval times include Ernest Symers of Bremen, Germany, in 1262, and Tomas Symcoke of Staffordshire in 1395. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Simond. This was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire, during the reign of King Edward 1st, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.