This interesting name is the Scottish form of the English name Norris, which has three possible origins, the first and most generally applicable to modern-day bearers of the name being from the Norman, Old French term "norreis", meaning "northerner". In this instance, the name meant someone who had migrated from the north, that is from further north in England or from Scotland or Scandinavia, and was common particularly in the Midlands and southern counties of England. The second possible origin is Anglo-Saxon, and is a topographic name for someone who lived "at the north house", one on the north side of a settlement, from the Olde English pre 7th Century "north", north, and "hus", house, as in Adam de Norhuse (circa 1206, Essex). The third origin is an occupational name for a nurse, from the Old French "norrice". Alexander Norrie was christened on June 8th 1679 in Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Nory, which was dated 1360, in the "Episcopal Registers of Aberdeen, Scotland", during the reign of King David 11 of Scotland, 1329 - 1371. 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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