Although this is a name almost entirely associated with Scotland, as is shown, the first recording is from Yorkshire. The name is a derivation of either Christian or the female Christiana, or Christopher, themselves derivatives of the Roman (Latin) "Christopherus". The name means "Christ bearing" and was rare before the Norman Conquest of 1066. The name development includes the following recordings John Chrysty, a burgess of Newburgh, Scotland in a charter dated July 13th 1457, Sir Robert Criste, witness at Fife (1547), whilst Thone Christie was a water carrier at St. Andrews in 1590, and on December 27th 1636, Agnes Christie married Symon Page at the church of St. Gregory by St. Pauls, London. A Coat of Arms most associated with family name is a silver shield, with a black chevron between three red wells, a red cross flory is on the Crest. The motto "Marte et arte" translates as "By valour and skill". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Chrysky, which was dated 1412, in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls, during the reign of King Henry 1V , known as "Henry of Bolingbroke". 1399 - 1413. 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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