Worsnip

Recorded in several spellings including Worship, Worsnap, Worsnep, Worsnip and Worsnup, this is an ancient English surname. It is is claimed to derive from the pre 7th century compound personal name "Weorpscipe". This translates as "dignity-honour", which in the 20th century may be regarded as an unusual meaning, but not so to the people of those far off times who had great regard for law, honesty, and personal virtues. This may have been because they had few of them to look forward to in that period of history called 'The Dark Ages'. The name is also one of a small group of traditionally 'English' names which survived the Norman Conquest of 1066, and the following Christian Revival period. At this time names of either French or biblical origins completely swamped those of Anglo-Saxon England. In this case early examples of the surname delopment include Robert Worshipe of Sussex in 1327 and John Worschop of Cumberland in 1332, although it is claimed that this may be a locational name from the village of Urswick in Cumbria. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.