Recorded in the spellings of Alchin, Allchin, Alcorn, Aldcorn, and Aldcorne, this is an Anglo-Scottish surname. However spelt it is believed to have originated from Alchorn, a manor in the parish of Rotherfield, in the English county of Sussex. The component elements in this locational name are "Aldca", an Olde English pre 7th Century personal name, plus the "horn", used here in a transferred sense to describe a projecting spur of land. In his famous book "Patronymica Britannica", Lower states that a family bearing the name Alchorne lived at Rotherfield in the 14th Century, however the earliest recording of the surname is in Scotland (see below). The spellings as Aldcorn and Aldcorne appear on record in Stirling in 1448 and 1476 respectively, whilst as Alchin and Allchin it is first recorded in London in 1607. Early examples of the name recording include Margery Alcorn, the daughter of Thomas Allchorn, christened at Rotherfield, on November 3rd 1540, Other recordings include Richard Alchin, who married Jone Gardner at the famous church of St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on September 16th 1607. The first recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of John Awldcorn, which was dated 1446, in the "Leasing Records of the Mill of Kethyk", Scotland, during the reign of King James 11 of Scotland, 1437 - 1460. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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