This interesting and unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Cyneweard". The name became "keneward" in Middle English, and is composed of the elements "cyne-", meaning "royal", with either "heard" meaning "hardy, brave, strong", or "weard", meaning "guardian, protector". As a personal name it is well recorded from the 12th Century, as in Keneward "Lingedraper", (1198, London), Walter son of Kentward (1214, Warwickshire), and Kynnard Delabere (1590, Gloucestershire). The modern surname can be found as "Kennard", from "cyne - heard", and "Kenward" or "Kenwood" from "cyne - weard". One David Kennard was married to Jesse Cummins at St. George's Chapel, Mayfair, London, in 1751. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter Kyneward, which was dated circa 1250, in the "Records of Ramsy Monastery", Bedfordshire, during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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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