Jehu

This is a very interesting surname. It appears to be English and yet like many surnames it is clearly influenced by a biblical or Hebrew origin, and may in fact be a French Huguenot "import" of the 17th or 18th century. In the times of the Crusades around the 12th century, it became the fashion for returning European soldiers to give their children biblical names in memory of the father's efforts to free the Holy Land from the Muslims. Today in the 20th century these names, which were originally only personal names such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as examples, form the largest single group in the surnames listings. Some names however either never reached major popularity, or were more popular in some countries than others, this may be one of them. Certainly Jehu is a famous biblical name, being that of the king off Israel in 815 b.c.. However he was most famous for killing Jezabel, and it would seem that at least in England it was also a post medieval nickname for a fast driver of horse drawn vehicles, or a person who took a chance. It is unclear when the name was first recorded, but examples taken from surviving church registers of Greater London include: John Jehu who married Elizabeth Barnes at St Giles Cripplegate on September 30th 1760, and George Jehu who married Elizabeth Bramall at St James Westminster, on June 19th 1777.