Cakebread

This very unusual name is one of the oldest on the surname list. It is said to be of Norse-Viking and Olde English pre 9th century origins. It derives from the Norse word 'kaka' meaning cake, and the English 'brede' and is apparenty a medieval occupational metonymic for a miller of special flour or a baker of 'dainty' cakes and small flat loaves. These were made from a special fine and sweet flour called 'cakebread'. 'Baking' was a village activity in ancient times, the baker usually providing a communal centre for the cooking of most foods, however the specialist nature of this surname and the relative rarity, suggests that 'Cakebreads' may have operated differently. One of the many unusual features of this surname has been its almost unchanging spelling since the fourteenth century, another rarity in itself. Other types of specialist baker that have produced surnames are the English surname but of French origins, Blanchpain, and Whitebread, although the latter is an English translation of the former. Early examples of the surname recordings include Alred Cake in the pipe rolls of Norfolk for the year 1210, John le Kakier in London in 1292, and Richard Cakebread, in the Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk for 1327 a.d. Later recordings are those of Thomas Cakebread who married Isabell Barnes at St Peters church, Cornhill, London in 1613, and Richard Cakebread, a witness at St James church, Clerkenwell, London, in 1632. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Edwinius Cacabred, which was dated 1109, The Pipe Rolls of Cambridge during the reign of King Henry I, The Administrator, 1100 - 1135 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.