Saing

Recorded in various spellings including Saing, Sang and Sange, and all rare, this is apparently an English surname, but is probably of medieval French origins. It has no obvious English meaning, and yet the surviving registers which include the earliest known recordings do not appear to offer any clue as to a foreign origin. Nevertheless the similar spelling to the French surnames Saigne and Sain, both meaning a butcher, and specifically a pork butcher, cannot be ignored, and it maybe that the name was introduced into England as early as the Norman Conquest of 1066. Occupational surnames came into use from about the 12th century in most of Northern Europe. They were not usually hereditary, and only became so when a son followed his father, or sometimes his grandfather, into the same occupation or trade. In this case early examples of the surname recording taken from surviving church registers of the diocese of Greater London, England, include Isabell Sange, the daughter of Walter Sange, who was christened at St Botolphs Bishopgate, on November 22nd 1640, Alice Saing, the daughter of Henry Saing, christened at St Mary's Battersea on February 22nd 1702, and finally George Sang, who married Mary Hunt at St Katherines Creechurch, in the city of London, on March 17th 1764.