This is an English surname created from the medieval female personal name "Mab(be)", a short form of the Middle English and Old French "Amabel", meaning "loveable" from the Latin "Amabilis". Early recordings of the name are spelt "Mabb(s)", the first "Mobbs" not appearing until the note of one "Wylliam Mobbys" in the Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk of 1524, as indeed in the modern idiom "Mobbs" is the more widespread form of the name. The "s" of Mobbs is in this instance, the metronymic form, meaning "son of" but descended throught the maternal side. The more usual form is patronymic, from the father. One John Mobbs married Susanna Ambler at St. George's, Hanover Square, London in 1800. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Mabbe, which was dated 1278, The London Calendar of Letters, during the reign of King Edward I, The Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. 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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