China

This interesting and rare name may derive from two possible origins. The name may be of English occupational origin for a maker of china, a ceramic ware of a type originally from China, from the sixteenth Century word "chiny", itself from the Persian word "chini". The surname may perhaps also be a variant of "chine", from the Old English pre seventh Century word "cinu", fissure, cleft, chasm, or a deep narrow ravine, hence the name was given to "a dweller by a ravine". The earliest recording of the name from this latter source is in the late 13th Century, (see below), while the surname itself first appears in the Church Registers of London on January 19th 1608, when Nicholas Chuna married Catherine Hae at St. Antholin Budge Row, London and they had a son Nicholas, christened there also on February 28th 1609. Francis and Timosena Chawna had a son christened on December 15th 1667, at Leek in Staffordshire, while one John China was christened at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Chyne, which was dated 1275, Subsidy Rolls of Worcestershire, during the reign of King Edward 1, "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.