Luxon

This most interesting and unusual surname is of early medieval English origin, and is a patronymic form of Luke, i.e. son of Luke. Luke derives from the male given name "Lucas", a Latin form of the Greek "Loucas", meaning "man from Lucania". Lucania was a region of southern Italy that was perhaps originally named in an Italic dialect with a word meaning "bright, shining" (Latin "lux", light). The name owed its popularity in the Middle Ages to St. Luke the Evangelist. Besides being a writer, St. Luke was a doctor (St. Paul describes him as "the beloved physician"), and is therefore one of the patron saints of doctors. St. Luke is also said to have been a painter, and numerous ancient pictures of the Madonna were supposed to be his work; so he is also claimed as the patron saint of artists. Luke (without surname) is recorded in Nottinghamshire in 1277. Luke-son became Luxon in the same way that Dick-son became Dixon. In the modern idiom the surname can be found as Luxson and Luxon. Recordings of the surname from English Church Registers include: the marriage of Elizabeth Luxon and John Amie at St. Gabriel Fenchurch, London, on February 16th 1589; the christening of Elizabeth, daughter of Mathew and Anne Luxon, on September 4th 1674, at St. Edmund's, Sutton, Lincolnshire; and the marriage of Jane Luxon and Joseph Bray on June 3rd 1707, at Wilton, Somerset. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Luxon, which was dated November 1st 1548, witness at the christening of his daughter, Rachell, at Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, during the reign of King Edward V1, known as "The Boy King", 1547 - 1553. 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.