This interesting surname of Germanic and Ashkenazic origin is a nickname for someone resembling a child, deriving from the German "kind" meaning"child". In some cases, it may also be a shortening of compound names ending in -kind, which is sometimes found as a patronymic ending of Ashkenazic surnames, by folk-etymological alteration of the ending - kin. The surname dates back to the late 16th Century, (see below). London church records include one Elizabeth Kinde who married John Johnson on December 11th 1575, at St. Giles, Cripplegate, William son of John Kynnd, who was christened on September 26th 1583 at Holy Trinity in the Minories, and Jayne Kynde who married Edward Waterhouse on May 18th 1595 at St. Michael Bassishaw. One Catherine King, aged 30 yrs., a famine emigrant, sailed from Liverpool aboard the Sea-of-New-York, bound for New York on August 27th 1846. Variations in the modern idiom of the spelling include Keynd, Kynnd, Kynde, Kinde, Kind, etc.. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Agnes Kinde (marriage to George Ager), which was dated 1565, in St. Nicholas Acons, London, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. 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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