Pasque

This unusual and interesting name is of Old French origin, introduced into England by the Normans after the Conquest of 1066. The name derives from the Old French "pasche, pasque(s)", Easter, from the Latin "pascua", earlier "pascha", in Middle English "pasche(s), paske(s)". This was used particularly as a nickname for someone who was born at Easter, or who had some other personal connection with that time of year, such as owing a feudal obligation then. The term was also sometimes used as a vernacular given name in the Middle Ages, in the forms Pask, Pash and Pack; one Hugo filius (son of) Pasch is recorded in the Cambridgeshire Hundred Rolls of 1279. The modern surname forms are Pash, Pashe, Paish, Pask, Paske and Pasque. Early examples of the surname include: Joseph Pach (1273, Cambridgeshire); Felic' Pasch (1279, ibid.); Walter Passh (1327, Worcestershire); and Robertus Pache (1379, Yorkshire), while the following are recordings from Church Registers: the christening of John, son of John Pash, at St. Botolph's, Colchester, Essex, on November 24th 1566, and the marriage of William Pash and Frances Broade, on June 29th 1640, at Duntisborne Abbots, Gloucestershire. The Coat of Arms most associated with the name is quarterly, silver and black; in the second and third quarters three silver fleur-de-lis in pale. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Paske, which was dated 1253, in the "Chartulary of Oseney Abbey", Oxfordshire, during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.