<<In the published property tax records (lay subsidies) for Kent of 1334/5, about a third of the names in the index are a combination of a christian name and a place name. i.e. James de Colnwod, Thomas de Compton and Robert atte Cort. I think the use of "de" is still in use today but very rarely but does anyone know when the use of "de" mainly went out of fashion?>> Hello Keith, 'de' went out of use in the 14th century, by and large, and so did topograpic prefixes like 'atte', though the latter did sometimes continue into the 15th century (and sometimes became part of the surname permanently, eg Athill = atte Hill, Atwood = atte Wood).* Modern surnames with 'de' are the result of immigration from France or other francophone regions in the modern period or are simply an affectation (anyone called D'Aeth is only a few generations away from ancestors called Death, for example). Matt Tompkins * Topographic surnames described where someone lived by reference to a geographic description, in contrast to toponymic surnames which used place-names - thus de Windsor and de Norwich are toponymic, but atte Wood, atten Oak, atten Ash, Athill are topographic. Of course 'de' was French and Latin, and when speaking in English names like de Compton would often have become 'of Compton; conversely the English 'atte' was sometimes rendered in Latin records as 'de'.