Bassick - Meno

Recorded in the spellings of Bastick and Bassick, this is an English surname. It is locational from a village called Bastwick, in the county of Norfolk, in the region known as East Anglia. Bastwick village is first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as Bastuuic, and later in 1181 as Bastwich. The derivation is from the pre 7th century Olde English words "bast" meaning lime trees, and "wic", a dairy farm, hence the dairy farm in the lime trees. Locational surnames were usually "from" names. That is to say that if they were not the name of the family that held the manorship of the village, then the name would be given to a person who had left the village and moved elsewhere. It was the custom to identify these people by calling them by the name of their original homes. Spelling being at best indifferent, and local dialects very thick, often lead to the development of "sounds like" spellings. In this case the earliest known recording would seem to be that of Geoffrey de Bastwyke, who is recorded in the Assize Rolls of the court of the city of Cambridge in 1335.