Littlefield

This surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from Littlefield, one of the hundreds of Kent, that is, a former subdivision of a county or shire, having its own court. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "lytel" (Middle English "littel"), small, little, with "feld", pasture, open country (opposed on the one hand to "aecer", cultivated soil, enclosed land, and on the other to "weald", wooded land). Other minor or unrecorded places, named with the same elements, may also have given rise to the surname. Locational names, such as this, were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and especially as a means of identification to those who left their place of origin to settle elsewhere. On May 24th 1564, one William Littlefield was recorded in Odiham, Hampshire. A Coat of Arms granted to the Littlefield family is described thus: Vert on a chevron argent between three garbs or, as many boys' heads couped proper. Crest: On a garb or, a bird argent, in the beak an ear of wheat vert. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Littlefield, which was dated 1563, christened at Titchfield, Hampshire, 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.