Merwede

This picturesque name is of English origin and is a nickname surname for someone of a sunny disposition 'a gay or blithe fellow'. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century word 'myrige', meaning merry, and 'weder', weather, and the name was a common term for 'fair weather'. There are three variants in the modern idiom and these are Merrywether, Merriweather and Mereweather. As a surname it occurs, among some other fictitious characters, in one of the Coventry Mysteries, where mention is made of, 'Bontyng the Brewster, and Sybyly Slynge, Megge Mery-wedyr, and Sabine Sprynge' in St. Matthew's, Friday Street, London, on the 16th June 1752, one Issac Merryweather married Susannah Fry.The Coat of Arms most associated with the name has the blazon of a silver shield, the sea in base with a dolphin embowed proper, on a blue chief three gold mullets (knights spurs), denoting someone who has distinguished himself in command of a battle. The crest being a gold fleur-de-lis and the motto: Marte et arte translating as "By valour and skill". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Henry Meriweder, which was dated 1214, Curia Rolls Bedfordshire, during the reign of King John, 'Lackland', 1199 - 1216. 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.