Cane

This interesting name has two main sources of origin. Firstly, from the Olde French "Cane", a reed and is either a nickname for a tall, thin reed-like person, a topographical name for someone who lived in a damp area overgrown with reeds or a metonymic occupational name for a gatherer of reeds, widely used in the Middle Ages as a floor covering and for weaving small baskets. Alternatively it could be of Celtic origin from the Welsh "cain" beautiful. "Keina" is a womans name. One Jane Cane married Phillip Watkins in St. Georges Chapel, Mayfair, London in 1747. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Roger de Cane, which was dated 1273, The Hundred Rolls of Lincolnshire, during the reign of King Edward I, The Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. 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.