Paramore

This interesting and unusual surname, with variant spellings Paramore and Parramore, originated as a nickname from the old French and Medieval English "par amour" meaning "with love, lover, sweetheart". The surname first appears on record in England in the latter part of the 13th Century, (see below). Other early recordings include John Paramour the 1296, "Subsidy Rolls of Sussex" and Roger Paramour, "Writs of Parliament for London", dated 1301. In Chaucer's, "Canterbury Tales", the wife of Bath remarks, "My fourthe husbonde was a revellour, This is to sayn, he hadde a paramour". Recordings of the surname from London church registers include the marriage of Anne Paramore to John Tompson in Saint Giles Cripplegate on November 20th 1580, and the marriage of Elizabeth Paramor to Anthony Hall in St. Mary le Bow on May 14th 1601. The name was introduced into America in the early 17th Century. John Parramore was recorded in a list of the inhabitants of Virginia in 1622 and Robert Paramour who came over in the "Swan", was resident in James City, Virginia, on January 30th 1624. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Paramour, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Lincolnshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "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.