This unusual and interesting name is of Scandinavian, Norse origin, deriving from the Old Norse word "drengr" meaning "young man", but having more than one possible interpretation. The name is recorded in 1161 as a personal name, "Dreng de Calvalea", Northumberland, and the Norse "Drengr" is found in the Domesday Book of 1086, both of these forms being found particularly in the most Scandinavian influenced areas of medieval England. The modern surname Dring or Dreng can also derive from the medieval use of the word "dreng" to mean "servant" and later a technical term of the feudal system of Northumberland meaning a free tenant who held land by military and agricultural service. The marriage of Joseph Crockford and Doreas Dring was recorded in 1779 at St. Georges's, Hanover Square, in London. A Coat of Arms was granted to a Dring family which depicts a red lion passant surmounted by a blue pale on a silver shield, and a Crest containing a phoenix in flames on a chapeau, all proper. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Roger Dreng, which was dated 1155, in the "Records of Durham Priory", during the reign of King Henry, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. 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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