This interesting and unusual surname, with variant spellings Gore, Goare, Guare, Gur etc., derives from the old English pre 7th Century "gara", a gore or triangular piece of land, and was originally given either as a topographical name to someone who lived by this natural feature, or as a locational name to one from Gore in Wiltshire or Gore Court in Kent. The surname was first recorded in the latter part of the 12th Century, (see below). Other early recordings include John de Gore, Cambridgeshire, 1257 and Alan ate Gore, the 1274 "Hundred Rolls of Essex". Recordings of the surname from London church registers include the marriage of Richard and Rachel Gore in St. Peter's Church, Cornhill, on March 9th 1520; the marriage of Raph Goare to Hellen Berick in St. Giles, Cripplegate, London on December 15th 1567 and the marriage of Samuel Gurr and Hannah Hurst in St. Clement Danes, Westminster, on February 29th 1772. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ralph de la Gare, which was dated 1181, in the "Pipe Rolls of Kent", during the reign of King Henry 11, 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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