Heber

This interesting and distinguished name is a variant form of the male personal name 'Hebbert', itself a variant of the more familiar 'Herbert'. The name is ultimately of Germanic origin, and is composed of the elements 'heri, han', army, with 'berht', bright, famous. It was introduced into Britain by the Normans after the Conquest of 1066, reinforcing the rarer Anglo-Saxon 'Herebeorht', and generated a wide variety of personal names and surnames thereafter. The first recording of the given name occurs in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Herbertus and Hereberd, and the first recording of the variant surname forms Hebbard, Hebard and Hebbert occurs in the Oxfordshire Hundred Rolls of 1279, with the listing of Henry Hebert. The arms granted to Reginald Heber (see below) in 1569 were 'Per fesse azure and gules (red), a lion rampant or (gold), in the dexter chief point a cinquefoil argent (silver)'. The motto is 'Prest d'accomplir'. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Reginald Heber, which was dated 1569, at Marton, Yorkshire (Burke's General Armory), during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as 'Good Queen Bess', 1558-1603. 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.