Loveday

This ancient and interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "leof", beloved, with "daeg", day. "Leofdaeg", written as "Loveday" in Middle English, was a popular female given name in medieval times, and several early examples of the surname may derive from this source. "Leuedai" and "Liuedai" (without surname) appear in the Domesday Book of 1086 for Somerset, and a uveday Bidua was noted in the 1205 Curia Regis Rolls of Northumberland. In 1381, Loveday, wife of Robert Christemasse, was entered in the Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk. The forename remained popular in Cornwall right through to the 19th Century, and recordings from the Register of St. Columb Major Church, Cornwall, include: Lovdie Jenkin (1578); Lowdy Trekeene (1622) and Loveday, wife of Thomas Vivian (1768). The surname may also have originated as a nickname for someone who had some particular association with a "loveday". According to medieval custom this was a day set aside for the reconciliation of enemies and amicable settlement of disputes. A quotation from a medieval manuscript reads, "But helle is fulle of suche discorde, that ther may be no loveday". In 1246, one Walter Loveday was noted in the Feet of Fines for Essex. A Coat of Arms granted to the Loveday family of Suffolk is a shield divided per pale silver and black, an eagle displayed with two necks counter-changed, gorged with a gold ducal coronet. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Aeluric Leuedey, which was dated circa 1095, in the "Feudal Documents from the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds", Suffolk, during the reign of King William 11, known as "Rufus", 1087 - 1100. 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.