Piddington

This uncommon name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from either of the places called Piddington, in Northamptonshire, near the town of Northampton, and in Oxfordshire, near Bicester. The place in Northamptonshire is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Pidentone", and as "Pedinton" in the 1167 Pipe Rolls of the county, while Piddington in Oxfordshire appears as "Petintone" in Domesday, and as "Pidinton" in the Oxfordshire Pipe Rolls of 1187. Both placenames share the same meaning and derivation, which is "the settlement of Piuda or Pydda's people", from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Piuda, Pydda", thought to be developed from a byname, "Pudoc", from "pudoc", wart, wen, with the suffix "-ing(as)", people, tribe of, and "tun", enclosure, settlement. Locational surnames were acquired by the lord of the manor, and local landowners, and were used particularly as a means of identification by those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. Among the recordings of the name in Church Registers are the christening of John, son of Phillip Piddington, at St. Mary's, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on February 10th 1587, and the marriage of Henrie Piddington and Ursula Pichard on May 16th 1611, at St. Giles', Oxford. One Christopher Piddington emigrated to the Virginia Colony in America in May 1635, on board the "Speedwell" of London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter de Pidington, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.