Recorded in many forms including Cocks, Cox, Coxe, and the patronymics Cockson, Coxen and Coxon, this interesting surname is English. It derives from a number of possible origins. Firstly, it may have originated as a nickname from the male bird, the cock, deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century word "cocc", and applied to a young lad who strutted or behaved like a cock, or an early riser, or a lusty or aggressive individual. It may also have derived from the Olde English personal names "Cocc" or "Cocca", found in placenames, although not on independent record. Another possibility is that it may be of topographical origin for a "dweller by the hill", deriving from the Olde English "cocc" meaning haycock, heap or hillock. In London it probably originated from the sign of a house or inn. Early examples of recordings include: William le Cock, in the Staffordshire Forest Pleas of 1271 and Hugh ate Cocke, in the Subsidy Rolls of London for 1319. Edward Cockson is recorded in the Hundred Rolls of Oxford in 1273, Thomas Kokson in the Poll Tax rolls of York in 1279, whilst Robert Coxon appears in the students list of Oxford University in 1556, when he was awarded a B.A. The first recorded spelling of the family name may be that of Aluuinus Coc. This was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book of Cambridgeshire, during the reign of King William 1st of England, 1066 - 1086. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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