Eldridge

This unusual and interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and has two possible interpretations. Firstly, it may derive from the Old English pre 7th Century personal names "Aelfric" or "Aethelric", both of which survived the influence of Norman names after the Conquest of 1066 in the reduced forms of Alric or Elric, and consequently cannot be distinguished after the 11th Century. The personal names are composed of the elements "aelf" elf, or "aethel", noble, with "ric", ruler, and are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Aelric, Alric, Alrich and Elric. Secondly, the modern surname, which has a variety of forms, ranging from Aldrich, Aldrick and Al(l)dridge, to Elderidge, Eldridge, Eldredge and Elrick, may be locational in origin, from the place called Aldridge in Staffordshire, or Aldridge Grove in Buckinghamshire, recorded as "Eldrigge" in 1227, The placename derives from the Old English pre 7th Century "alor", alder, and "wic", village, hamlet. The marriage of Roger Eldredge and Elizabeth Miller was recorded at St. James's, Duke's Place, London, on October 8th 1691. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Roger Elrich, which was dated 1279, in the "Ecclesiastical Records of Barnwell", Cambridgeshire, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.