Hassur

This unusual and interesting name is of medieval German origin, specifically from the southern region of Baden. The surname Hassur is one of the variant forms of the name Hass or Hasse, which derives from 'Hasso', a pet, short, form of any of the Old Germanic male personal names containing the Old German 'hadu', battle, strife, as the first element. A typical and popular example of this is the given name 'Hadubert', composed of the elements 'hadu', battle, strife, with 'berht', bright, famous. Most German patronymic surnames, of which Hassur is one, became fully developed and fixed by the end of the 16th Century, and were usually derived from vernacular Germanic given names, rather than from baptismal names honouring christian saints. Lorenz Hassur was christened in Ringsheim, Baden, on August 10th 1707, and Joseph Hassur married Josepha Langenstein in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, on November 25th 1839. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Christoph Hassur (marriage to Rosina Keller), which was dated July 7th 1681, at Freiburg, Baden, Germany, during the reign of Leopold 1, the Holy Roman Emperor, 1658 - 1705. 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.