Osant

This ancient name is of Anglo-Saxon and Old Scandinavian origin, and is developed from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Osmund", composed of the elements "os", a god, with "mund", protection. Both this name and the independent Old Norse personal name "Asmundr" were in general use in England before the Norman Conquest of 1066; after that date it was reinforced by the introduction of the Norman form, "Osmond". The name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Osmund(us), Hosmundus" and "Hosmunt", and although as a personal name it became less common after the 13th Century, examples are noted in Cambridge in the 16th and 17th Centuries. The modern surnames from this source are Osmond, Osmon, Osmund, Oseman, Osman(t), Osment and Osmint, and early examples include: Robert Osemund (1221, Norfolk); Richard Osemond (1297, Oxfordshire); and William Osman (1367, Essex). Among the recordings of the name from Church Registers are those of the christening of Agnes, daughter of Alexander Oseman, in Tiverton, Devonshire, on August 7th 1617, and the marriage of Richard Oseman and Mary Brush on April 7th 1760, at St. Martin in the Fields, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Roger Hosemund, which was dated 1199, in the "Feet of Fines of Northumberland", during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "Richard the Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. 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.