Buckeridge

This interesting and uncommon name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from the place called "Buckridge" in Worcestershire, near Bewdley. The placename means "the ridge frequented by bucks", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "bucc", buck, male deer, and "hrycg", back, ridge. Locational surnames were usually acquired by the lord of the manor, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. The modern surname can be found as Buckridge and Buckeridge. One Anthony Buckeridge of Wiltshire appears in the University of Oxford's Register for 1615. The marriage of Thomas Buckeridge and Joane Weshbourne was recorded at Crudwell in Wiltshire on October 29th 1607. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of George Buckeridge (marriage to Susan Stodleye), which was dated February 18th 1598, St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London, 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.