Pawden

This unusual surname, recorded in English Church Registers from the mid 16th Century under the variant spellings Pawden, Pedden, Paudin, Paydon, Peaden and Patten, has two distinct possible sources, each with its own history and derivation. Firstly, Paddon may be of Anglo-Saxon origin, and a locational name either from the hamlet of Pedden, west of Sandwich in Kent, or from Payden, a locality in the Hollingbourne rural district of Kent. Alternatively, Paddon may be a dialectal variant of the ancient locality, Patine or Patten near Chelmsford, Essex, or of either of two places called Patton, the one near Easthope in Shropshire, and the other, north west of Kendal, Westmorland. The latter element of these placenames may be either the Olde English pre 7th Century "denn", swine-pasture, or the Olde English "tun, ton", enclosure, settlement, whereas, the former is the Anglo-Saxon personal name "Padda". The second possible origin is northern English and Scottish, where Paddon is a variant of Patton, itself deriving from Pat, a pet form of the male given name Patrick, from the Latin "Patricius", meaning "son of a noble father", with the French diminutive suffix "-on". James Padyne was a witness in Edinburgh in 1514, and on September 15th 1586, Robert Paddon, an infant, was christened at St. Giles' Cripplegate, London. A Coat of Arms granted to the Paddon family is a silver shield with a bend between three black crescents flammant proper. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Patten, of Patine or Patten, which was dated 1119, in the "Early Records of Essex", during the reign of King Henry 1, known as "The Lion of Justice", 1100 - 1135. 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.