Guild

This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a Scottish variant to the English surname Gold, which has a number of possible sources. Firstly, it may derive from the Olde English pre 7th Century "gold", and would have been a metonymic occupational name for someone who worked in gold, for example a refiner, jeweller, or gilder. It may also have been a nickname for someone with bright yellow hair, with reference to the colour of the metal. The creation of surnames from nicknames was a common practice in the Middle AGes, and many modern-day surnames derive from medieval nicknames referring to personal characteristics. Finally, the surname may be from an Olde English personal name "Golda" (or the feminine "Golde"), which persisted into the Middle Ages as a given name. The name was in part a byname from "gold", gold, and in part a short form of the various compound names with this first element. Thomas Gulde and William Guld were charter witnesses in 1481, and Henry Guld is mentioned in a Scone document of 1491. On February 9th 1583, Thomas Guild married Kaeti Gryme in Dunfermline, Fife, and Margaret Guild married Edward Winraham on August 6th 1622, in Edinburgh, Midlothian. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alexander Gulde, which was dated 1421, in the "Exchequer Rolls of Scotland", during the reign of King James 1 of Scotland, 1406 - 1437. 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.