Wookey

This interesting surname of English origin is a locational name from a place called Wookey in the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century "wocig" meaning "snare" or "trap". The placename is recorded as Woky in the Domesday Book of 1086. Variations in the idiom of the spelling of the surname include Woky, Wokey, Wookeye, etc.. One, Elizabeth Wookeye, daughter or Jhon, was christened on April 17th 1603, at St. Michael, Wood Street, London, and Anne Wokey married William Roden on July 13th 1651, at St. Martin Orgar and St. Clement Eastcheap, London. John, son of John and Mary Wookey, was christened at St. James Clerkenwell, London on December 28th 1690. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Wokey married Isabell Wilson, which was dated 1602, "St. Benet Fink, London, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. 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.