This unusual name is a patronymic form of the surname Good, which is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is from a medieval given name, a survival of the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Goda", which was in part a byname, and in part a short form of various compound names with the first element "god", meaning "good", such as "Goddaeg", translating as "good-day", and "Godwine", translating as "good-friend"; this first element "god", was later developed into the Middle English (1200 - 1500) "gode". The given name is unusual because most Anglo-Saxon names were lost after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and the subsequent introduction of French names. The modern surname can be found as Good(e), Goude, Gude and Gudd, and the patronymics include; Gooding, Goodinge and Goodings. Recorded in the London Church Registers are the marriages of Robert Goodings and Mary Hust on March 21st 1742 at St. George, Mayfair, Westminster, and of Jonathan Goodings and Mary Ensley on September 28th 1791 at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Goding, which was dated 1185, in the "Records of the Templars in England in the 12th Century", Essex, 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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