West-Frimley

As with many Old English personal names such as "Alfgar" composed of the disparate elements "aelf", elf and "gari", spear, double-barrelled names, (usually created following a marriage between two families), have no overall meaning but the separate elements have their own meaning and derivation. In this instance, the name West is of Anglo-Saxon topographical origin for someone who lived to the West of a main settlement, the derivation being from the Medieval English, Middle High German "west", west. In some instances, West may have been given as a regional name to someone who had migrated from the west to another part of the country. One, William del West was noted in the 1216, "Select Pleas of the Forest", Essex. The name Frimley is of locational origin from a place thus called in Surrey. Recorded as Fremeley in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, dated 933, the first element is the Old English pre 7th Century personal name Fremi, plus "leah", a wood or clearing. On June 28th 1577, George Frimley, an infant, was christened in St. Margaret's, Westminster, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Maurice de West, which was dated 1152, The Pipe Rolls of Essex, during the reign of King Stephen, "Count of Blois", 1135 - 1154. 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.