This surname, of French ancestry, has two possible origins, totally dissimilar and yet in a way related. The first is job-descriptive, and relates to a maker or seller of caps, bonnets and the traditional headdresses popular in the medieval period, deriving from the Old French "hennin", bonnet. The second origin is locational, describing a former inhabitant of the village of Henin in the Pas-de-Calais. This village was, however, famous for the manufacture of caps and bonnets, so in a sense the two origins are interchangeable. The surname spelling form suggests that it has been Anglicized and shortened from the aristocratic "de Henin", but this is only partly true, the foreshortening being a French corruption well recorded in the 17th Century.It is possible that some Dhenin nameholders were Huguenot refugees, Guillaume Henin being recorded at the French Huguenot Church, Threadneedle Street, London, on August 4th 1622. The various spelling forms include Henin, Hennin, Dhenin and Dhennin, the last mentioned of which is the most popular. The early French recordings are erratic or non-existent, but it would seem that Henin or Hennin pre-dates Dhen(n)in by at least one hundred years. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Florentin Henin, which was dated July 1st 1652, a witness at Dieulquard, Meurthe-de-Moselle, France, during the reign of King Louis X1V of France, 1643 - 1715. 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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