Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
 Maynard Coat of Arms / Maynard Family CrestThe surname of MAYNARD was a baptismal name 'the son of Maynard', a long forgotten personal name. Early records of the name mention Maynard de Abyngdon, vicar of Dersingham, County Norfolk in 1273. Hugh Maynard of the County of Oxfordshire was documented in 1273. Henricus Manerd of Yorkshire was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Mathewe Staples and Alice Maynard were married at St. Thomas the Apostle, London in 1609. James White and Catherine Mainard were married at St. James's, Clerkenwell, London in 1647. Surnames as we know them today were first assumed in Europe from the 11th to the 15th Century. They were not in use in England or in Scotland before the Norman Conquest, and were first found in the Domesday Book. The employment in the use of a second name was a custom that was first introduced from the Normans. They themselves had not long before adopted them. It became, in course of time, a mark of gentler blood, and it was deemed a disgrace for gentlemen to have but one single name, as the meaner sort had. It was not until the reign of Edward II (1307-1327) it became general practice amongst all people. The rise of surnames, according to the accepted theory, was due to the Norman Conquest of 1066 when Old English personal-names were rapidly superseded by the new christian names introduced by the Normans. Of these, only a few were really popular and in the 12th century this scarcity of christian names led to the increasing use of surnames to distinguish the numerous individuals of the same name. Some Normans had hereditary surnames before they came to England, but there is evidence that surnames would have developed in England even had there been no Norman Conquest. The development of the feudal system made it essential that the king should know exactly what service each person owed. Payments to and by the exchequer required that debtors and creditors should be particularized, and it became official that each individual acquired exact identification. The associated arms are recorded in Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. |
