Toyne

ecorded as Teign, Tyne, Tynes, Tine, Toyne, and possibly others, this is an English surname of truly ancient origins. It derives from the pre Roman Ancient British word for a river. This was usually "Tin", and itself a derivative of tinan, meaning to dissolve or disperse. What is certain is that the word as tina appears in Ptolemai's Geographia in the year 150 a.d. This was during the Roman occupation of Britain which ended in 410. Later as "Tinus" it is recorded by the Venerable Bede in the early Anglo Saxon Chronicles of 730 a.d.. The same word was also used in Scotland, and the later surnames, whilst usually English, may also in some case be Scottish. What is surprising is that there are several Tyne or Teign rivers in the U.K., and what is even more surprising is that the surname is not recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne until December 18th 1777, when Ann Tyne married John Matyer at St. Johns Church in that city. The name is well recorded in the city of London and recordings include Alyce Tynye in 1576, Barbara Tines in 1599, whilst on July 9th 1604, Itborowe Tyne married Gilbert Becke, at St. Dunstans in the East, Stepney. 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.