The German surname of ATZ was a baptismal name 'the son of Ascer' a very ancient personal name, originally rendered in Old Norman French as ASSE, meaning noble. The name is also spelt as Azar and Edel. In the Middle Ages the name was also applied to the lowest order of a free citizen, ranking below the nobility and knightly class, but above the masses of the servile population. Asser (without surname) was canon of St. David's in 1202, County Lancashire. William Ascer of Lincolnshire, was documented in the year 1273. William Asser was rector of Aylmerton, in the County of Norfolk in 1397. John Adams and Phillipa Asser were married in County Hereford in the year 1671. 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. The name is also spelt Ace, Atze, and Azzi. 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. |
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