DAVENPORT - Found in Cheshire and meaning "gateway of the river (Daven). It's Old English and from the Latin "porta." Orm de Davenport - 1166 A.D. Earwaker, E. Cheshire <apparently a book of records kept at the time-gary> There was no Davenport listed on the list of warriors who accompanied William on the Conquest. This name almost certainly predates the Conquest. "In Cheshire there are Lees as plenty as fleas, And as many Davenports as dogs' tails.--Old Saying It was William who had a great deal to do with surnames being used in England. In Domesday, it was necessary to distinguish one Egbert from the other and a surname was the easiest way to accomplish this. But there were surnames before William. When Ivo de Taillebois married Lucia of Mercia she apparently had no surname. It was discovered later that she was a Saxon named Lucia Malet. Ivo was the Baron Kendal of Lancashire but there had been Baron Kendals before him that were of no relation. He just took over their lands. William I would have had a say in this title. There is no place in Lancashire named Kendal that I'm aware of so where the name came from is unknown to me. Gary Radcliffe ----- Original Message ----- From: MsMysticWolf@aol.com Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 7:01 AM To: SURNAME-ORIGINS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [SURNAME-ORIGINS] Good Site re Names, Royal Decrees, etc. Funny, I was under the impression that it was King William I, aka "The Conquerer" who began the use of surnames. I've heard that when William was crowned King on 25 Dec 1066, he decreed that all people of royality must have a surname and that most took their name from where they were from, i.e. The Davenport's of Davenport. I'd be interested in hearing more on this subject. Coincidentally, Davenport's came to England from Normandy. Gary, you said you'd have to look this up...could you? I'd be very interested in knowing the whole story.....thanks, Teri Davenport Family: http://www.DavenportFamily.1colony.com ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237