Creech

This unusual and interesting name is of British that is pre-Roman origin. It is a topographical or a locational name, and means either "one who lives at the barrow", or "by the hill" if topographical or "the place at the hill" if locational. The derivation is from the British (Celtic) and Old Welsh word "cruc", in Modern Welsh "crug", meaning variously "heap, barrow, hill", especially a round hill or hillock. The places called "Creech" in Dorset and "Creech St. Michael" in Somerset are the sources for the modern locational surname, the former being recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Criz" and "Cric" and the latter as "Crice", both meaning "the hill", from "cruc". There are a number of variants of the surname today, from Cridge and Crudge to Critch, Crutch and Creech. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Frances Cridge married Joseph Booth, which was dated 31st January 1666, St. James's Dukes Place, London, during the reign of King Charles 11, known as "The Merry Monarch", 1660 - 1685. 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.