This surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from any of the various places in Norfolk, including New, Old and Little Buckenham, which derive their name from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal byname "Bucca" from "bucc", a male deer, and "ham", village, estate, manor, homestead. Old Buckenham, which was recorded as "Bucheham" in the Domesday Book of 1086, is situated south east of Attleborough, and contains the ruins of Buckenham Palace; Little Buckenham appears as "Bokeham", circa 1154 in Charter Rolls of Norfolk, and Buckenham on the Yare was entered as "Buc(h)anaham" in the Domesday Book. Early examples of the surname include: Peter de Bukenham (Norfolk, 1277) and Richard Buckenham, vicar of Quarles, Norfolk, circa 1300. Robert Buckenham, prior of the Black Friars, Cambridge, 1524, was created Doctor of Divinity in 1531. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Bukenham, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Norfolk", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was 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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