Swanger

Recorded as Swainger and Swanger, this is a very interesting surname. It is apparently English, and appears to be occupational, except that we cannot find any listing of any work except swan-upping which might suggest this surname. Furthermore the surname appears without any warning in the surviving church registers of the city of London, in about the time of King George 1Vth (1830 -1837). This is at least three centuries too late for any normal surname creation, and suggests that either the surname originates from some place that we have not been able to identify, or the name has a meaning that we cannot find either, or that for some reason it is a 'created' name or even perhaps an 'English' form of some foreign name. What we do know is that in the year 1835 on August 17th a Henry Swanger married Harriet Rice at the very prestigious church of St Martins in the Field, in Trafalgar Square, Westminster. Over the next ten years this couple recorded as many as eight births of their children, however the surname seems to have been varied in spelling between Swanger and Swainger. As an example their first child was recorded as Elizabeth Swainger at St Anne's Soho, Westminster, on June 27th 1836, whilst some years later at the same church we have the recording of William Stranger on July 10th 1842.