Spurnier

This unusual and interesting name is a variant of the metonymic ocupational name "Spurr", a spurner, or maker of spurs. The derivation is from the Middle English "spore" or "spure", itself deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century "spora" or "spura", meaning a spur. The surname from this source is frist recorded in the early half of the 13th Cenutry. An earlier form of the name, "Spureman", appears in the Norfolk Pipe Rolls c.1222. One Robert Spurr embarked form the Port of London on the "Paul" bound for St. Christophers in the West Indies in 1635. The surname can be found in various forms in the modern idiom:- Spur(r), Spore(s), Spoor and Spurnier. The "s" of Spores is the patronymic form, meaning "son of". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Peter Spore or Spure. which was dated 1236, in the Sussex Pipe Rolls. during the reign of King Henry 111, known as the Frenchman, 1216 - 1272. 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.