Liddiard

Recorded in many forms including Liddiard, Lidiard, Lyddiart, Liddeart, Liddiert, Lidierth, and others, this is an English medieval surname. It is locational from either the village of Lydiard in the county of Wiltshire or Lydeard in the nearby county of Somerset. In the famous Domesday Book of England in 1086, Lydiard is recorded as Lidiarde, and Lydeard as Lediart. The second element of the name was originally "garth." This is an old English and Welsh word meaning steep hill, and both places are situated by prominent hills. The first element is not proven, but may mean be a short form of the pre 7th century "hylde" meaning a river. The surname is first recorded in the early half of the 16th Century in the reign of King Henry V111th (1510 - 1547), and early church register recordings include that on August 5th 1539 of William Lyddyard. He was christened at St. Andrew's Ogbourne in Wiltshire, whilst Elizabeth Liddyard married Robert Bradley, at St. Mary's Marlborough, on December 4th 1607. Other recordings include Elizabeth Liddiard, christened at St. James Clerkenwell, city of London in 1623, and in the north of England Margaret Lidierth was married at Liverpool, Lancashire, in March 1838 (volume 20, page 213, civil registration index). 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.