Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
Heading Coat of Arms / Heading Family CrestThe surname of HEADING was a locational name 'of Headon' or 'Hedon' parishes in the diocese of Southwell and York. The name was derived from the Old English word HAEPDUN, literally meaning the dweller at the place covered with heather. HELDONE (without surname) who was documented in the North Riding of Yorkshire in 1115, appears to be the first of the name on record, and HADDUN was recorded in 1185 in County Yorkshire. Local names usually denoted where a man held his land, and where he actually lived. Other records of the name mention Gerard de Hedon, 1273 who was recorded in County Nottingham and Nicholas de Hedon was documented in County Cambridge, ibid. Willelmus de Hedon of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. The name was taken to Scotland by early settlers, and Peter de Hendun, burgess of Aberdeen about 1214, is the first of the name in Scotland on record. Magister Nicholas de Hedon was the dean of Moray in 1254, and Stephen de Hedun was recorded in Aberdeen in 1360. Alexander Hedding of Ponderualls, was documented there in 1690. The name has many variant spellings which include Heddon, Hedding, and Headon. 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 associated coat of arms is recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. |
