Loffhead

This name, with variant spellings Lochhead, Lochead, Loffhead etc., is of Scottish topographical origin for one resident by a lake or enclosure on a headland. The component elements of the name are the Old English pre 7th Century "loc(a)", an enclosure, or perhaps the Old Gaelic "loch" meaning a lake or pool, plus the Old English "heafod", (Medieval English "heved"), literally meaning "head", but used in various transferred sense such as "headland" or "upper end". The earliest form of the surname was recorded towards the end of the 13th Century, (see below). In 1626 one, James Lochheid was burgess and guild-brother of Glasgow, and on November 21st 1654 David Lochhead and Jeane Symsoun were married in Edinburgh parish, Midlothian. On April 26th 1742 Elizabeth Loughhead, an infant, was christened in Flockton, Yorkshire, and on May 23rd 1861 Mary Ann Loughhead and John Groome were married in Manchester Cathedral Lancashire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Gilbert de Lakenheued who "rendered homage", which was dated 1296, in the "Records of Lanarkshire", Scotland, during the reign of John Balliol of Scotland, 1292 - 1296. 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.