Claydon

This surname is of medieval English origin, and is a locational name from any of the various places in England thus called, including Claydon in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Suffolk. Botolph, East, and Middle Claydon (Buckinghamshire), recorded as "Clai(n)done" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and respectively as "Botle Cleidun, Est Cleydon" and "Middelcleydon" in the Feet of Fines for the county, dated 1242, are so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "claeg(en)", clayey (soil), and "dun", down, hill, mountain; "Botolph" is a popular etymology for the Olde English "botl", house, building, manor. Steeple Claydon, also in Buckinghamshire, entered as "Claindone" in the Domesday Book, and as "Stepel Cleydon" in Episcopal Registers, dated 1209, is named from the same Olde English elements, "Steeple" is from the church steeple. Claydon in Suffolk and Oxfordshire, appear respectively as "Clainduna" in the Domesday Book, and as "Claindona" circa 1160 in the "Registrum Antiquissimum" (Oxfordshire). Locational surnames, such as this, were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and especially as a means of identification to those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. On February 15th 1561, Elizabeth, daughter of William Claydon, was christened at St. James' Church, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and on May 11th 1561, Alice Claydon married Robertus Foxe at Ashdon, Essex. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Claydon, which was dated March 30th 1551, marriage to Jane Walman, at St. Sepulchres, Cambridgeshire, during the reign of King Edward V1, known as "The Boy King", 1547 - 1553. 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.