Recorded in the spellings of Bastin, Baston, Bastone, Bayston and Baysting, this is an English surname. It has at least three possible origins. The first is that it may be locational from a place called Baston in the county of Lincolnshire, with an original landowner Turstan de Baston being recorded in the very early Pipe Rolls of Lincolnshire in 1191, or from Bayston, a village in Shropshire, first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as Begestan, or the similarly names Bayton in Worcester, which has the same meaning of "Beaga's farm". The second possible origin is that the name derives from the Olde French word 'bastun' meaning a 'stick', a word introduced by the Normans after the Invasion of 1066, and hence a nickname for a thin person, or even given the robust humour of the medieval period, the complete reverse!. Finally the modern surname may be a derivative of the popular first name and later surname Sebastian, usually recorded in England as Bastian, Bastan, Basten and Baston. Early recordings include those of Richard Bastun, in the Assize Court rolls of the county of Northamptonshire in the year 1203, Colin Baystin in the Patent Rolls of 1225, and Nicholas Baston in the famous Hundred Rolls of 1279. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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