Diamond

This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, from "Dayman", an Olde English pre 7th Century personal and occupational name. The first element "day" derives from "deye" a keeper of livestock. In a 1363 statute we find enumerated "cow-herds, shepherds, swine-herds, dyes and all other keepers of livestock". The suffix "man(n)" was often added to an occupational name; hence "the keeper of animals". One Dayman Buntyng, is registered in Cambridgeshire in 1221. The surname is first recorded in the early half of the 13th Century (see below). Thomas Dymande, is noted in the 1332 Subsidy Rolls of Surrey, and Robert Dymond appears in the 1379 Poll Tax Returns of Yorkshire. The excrescent "t" or "d" was not in widespread use before the 17th Century. In the modern idiom the surname has may variant spellings, including Diamant, Diamond, Deman, Demant, Diment, and Dyment. Margaret Dimond married Thomas Kingston on February 24th 1695, at St. Mary's, St. Marylebone Road, London. A Coat of Arms granted to the Dimond family depicts three red mullets on a silver shield. On the Crest is a cross crosslet in pale surmounted by a diagonal arrow pointing downwards. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Stephen Deyman, which was dated 1224, in the "Pipe Rolls of Buckinghamshire", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.