Bradnock

This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from Bradnocks Marsh in Warwickshire, which is situated seven miles west of Coventry. The derivation of the placename is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "brad", broad, wide, and "ac", oak; hence, "broad oak tree", or "broad oak wood". Braddock or Broadoak in Cornwall is named with the same elements and is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Brodehoc", and as "Brethok" in the 1291 Feet of Fines. During the Middle Ages, when migration for the purpose of job-seeking was becoming more common, people often took their former village name as a means of identification, thus resulting in a wide dispersal of the name. In the modern idiom the surname can be found as Broadnicke, Bradnock, Bradneck, Brodnecke, Bradnocke and Bradnick. Recordings of the surname from Warwickshire Church Registers include: the christening of John, son of Edward Bradnock, on February 5th 1588, at Nuneaton; the christening of Thomas, son of Thomas Bradnock, which took place at Hampton in Arden on September 22nd 1603; and the marriage of Georgius Bradnock and Johanna Pickering, which took place at Fillongley, on November 5th 1611. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Eleanor Brodnocke, which was dated May 27th 1582, marriage to George Baker, at Solihull, Warwickshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "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.