Collicott - Meno

This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from places called Chollacott in Devonshire and Wiltshire, from Collacotts in Devon, or from any one of the places called Caldecote or Caldecott in, for example, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. Most of these places are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Caldecote", and share the same meaning and derivation, which is "the cold huts or cottages", from the Olde English pre 7th Century "ceald, cald", cold, with "cot", cottage, hut, dwelling. It is thought that the original reference was to a hut or shelter for animals or an unattended place of shelter for wayfarers, although by the time of Domesday these places had mostly achieved considerable status as settlements. The places in Wiltshire and Devonshire have a different derivation; here the first element is the Olde English personal name "Cola", from "col", (char)coal, referring to a swarthy appearance, or "col" itself; hence, "Cola's hut", or "the (char)coal hut or shed". There are a great number and variety of surnames from the placenames discussed, ranging from Caldecot(t), Call(i)cot and Calcut(t), to Corkett, Coldicott, Collacot(t) and Collicot(t). Examples from Devonshire and London Church Registers include: the marriage of William Collicott and Penticost Pithibridge, in North Bovey, on November 28th 1633, and the christening of Mary, daughter of John Collicott, on December 14th 1660, at St. Mary Whitechapel. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Simon de Caldecot, which was dated 1195, in the "Pipe Rolls of Cambridgeshire", during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "Richard the Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. 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.