Dymond

This interesting and unusual name is of early medieval English origin, and has two separate interpretations with distinct derivations. Firstly, Dymond may be an occupational surname for a herdsman or dairy-man, as a variant form of the surname Dayman, which is derived from the Middle English "day(e), dey(e)", cattleman, dairy-man, with the augmentative "man", man. A Statute of 1363 enumerates "cow-erds, shepherds, swine-herds, deyes, and all other keepers of live stock". One Richard le Deymon is recorded in the Staffordshire Subsidy Rolls of 1332. The second possible source of the name derives from the Middle English personal name "Day(e)" or "Dey(e)", from the Olde English pre 7th Century "Daei", itself adopted from "daeg", day, perhaps a short form of Anglo-Saxon personal names such as "Daegberht" and "Daegmund". The suffix "-man", here usually denoted "servant" or "follower of" when preceded by a given name. The excrescent "d" of the variant forms Dymond and Diamond are due to 17th Century folk etymology from the precious stone. Willelmus Dymond is listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Returns for 1379, and one Robert Dymond was an early emigrant to the New World colonies, leaving London on the "Hopewell" in February 1634, bound for "the Barbadoes". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Stephen Deyman, which was dated 1224, in the "Curia Regis Rolls of Buckinghamshire", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.