Wands

This is the patronymic form of the medieval habitational or possibly job-descriptive "Wand" or "Wande", a German name which described a builder of fences. It is believed that the word specifically described a builder of defensive walls and fortifications, but the original development was from "wenten" meaning "to weave". It can therefore be construed that the original nameholders were builders of inter-woven wattle fencing, as the name can also describe a medieval cloth merchant. The name as Wand first appears in England in 1568, whilst "Wands" is recorded at Baumgarten, Mecklenburg, Germany, on July 2nd 1784, when Maria Sophia Wands was christened. In England the name is first recorded in London on February 5th 1854, when Ebenezeer Wands was a witness at St. Luke's Church, Chelsea. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Wilhelm Wande, which was dated 1368, recorded at Villingen, Switzerland, during the reign of Emperor Charles 1V of the Holy Roman (German) Empire, 1347 - 1378. 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.