Evitts

This rare and interesting surname is one of the metronymic forms of the medieval English female personal names, "Evett", "Evatt" or "Evitt", which are the diminutive forms of the rare female given name "Eve", which is from the Hebrew "Chava", of uncertain origin, perhaps originally meaning "serpent", or akin to "chaya", to live. According to the Book of Genesis, Eve was the name of the first woman and in some cases, the name would have been granted to one (probably a man) who played the part in a drama dealing with the "Creation". Metronymic forms are rarely found as modern surnames, where the name derives from the name of the first bearer's mother, since most medieval cultures were patronymic. The surname can be found as Evetts, Evitts and Evatts. Among the sample recordings in London is the christening of John, son of James and Mary Evitts on July 28th 1686 at St Botolph's, Bishopgate. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Evett, which was dated 1555, Oriel College Records, Oxfordshire, during the reign of Queen Mary, "Bloody Mary", 1553 - 1558. 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.