Recorded in several spellings including the German and French Neuman, Neumann, and Nyeman, and the Anglo-Scottish Newman, this notable surname is of Germanic, and Anglo-Saxon origins. It was a medival nickname that was given to a stranger to a place. The derivation is from the pre 7th century word "neowe" meaning new, with "mann", which in this context was personal and singular. In the surviving registers of England, Scotland, and Germany, the first countries to adopt any recognizeable system of central registration Godwin Nieweman appears Pipe Rolls of Oxfordshire in 1169, and in Germany Herman Nyeman of Barth, in 1325. Thomas Newman, aged 15 years, who embarked from London on the ship "Plaine Joan" bound for Virginia in May 1635, was among the earliest recorded settlers in the colonies of New England. A coat of arms granted to the Newman family of Mamhead, in Devonshire, has the blazon of a black shield charged with three silver lions rampant, langued red, the crest being a silver lion rampant. The first recorded spelling of the family name anywhere in the world is that of Stangrim Noueman. This was dated 1166, in the Pipe Rolls of Norfolk, England, during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the 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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