Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
 APPLEBEE Family Crest / APPLEBEE Coat of ArmsThe surname of APPLEBEE was a locational name 'of Appleby' parishes in counties Westmorland, Lincoln and Leicestershire. Local surnames, by far the largest group, derived from a place name where the man held land or from the place from which he had come, or where he actually lived. These local surnames were originally preceded by a preposition such as "de", "atte", "by" or "in". The names may derive from a manor held, from working in a religious dwelling or from literally living by a wood or marsh or by a stream. The name is also spelt APPELBY, APPLEBEY and APPELBEE. Early records of the name mention Geoffrey de Appelby, 1173 County Lincoln. John de Appleby, vicar of Tilney, County Norfolk in 1372. Johannes de Appelby, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll tax of 1379. Later instances of the name include William Norris who married Sarah Appleby at St. George's, Hanover Square, London in 1775. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God, however much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. Among the humbler classes of European society, and especially among illiterate people, individuals were willing to accept the mistakes of officials, clerks and priests as officially bestowing a new version of their surname, just as they had meekly accepted the surname they had been born with. In North America, the linguistic problems confronting immigration officials at Ellis Island in the 19th century were legendary as a prolific source of Anglicization. In the Middle Ages heraldry came into use as a practical matter. It originated in the devices used to distinguish the armoured warriors in tournament and war, and was also placed on seals as marks of identity. As far as records show, true heraldry began in the middle of the 12th century, and appeared almost simultaneously in several countries of Western Europe. |
