Recorded as Newman in England and as Neumann, Neuemann, Nuemann, Nyemann, and others, in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, this notable surname was of Germanic and Anglo-Saxon pre 7th century origins. It was originally a pre-medieval nickname for somebody new to a particular place. The derivation is from the word "neowe" with the suffix "mann", meaning a friend or foreman. The surname is widely recorded with Godwin Nieweman in the Pipe Rolls of Oxfordshire, England in 1169, and in Germany Hermann Nyeman of Barth, in 1325 and the similar English version as in Robert le Nyman of Sussex in 1296. Thomas Newman, aged fifteen, who left London on the ship "Plaine Joan" bound for Virginia in May 1635, was among the earliest recorded settlers in the new colonies of British America. John Henry Newman (1801 - 1890), who was formally created cardinal of St. George in Velabro in 1879. A member of the Oxford Movement, he resigned his Anglican living, and joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1845. A coat of arms granted to the Neumann family of Berlin has the blazon of a red field charged with vertical cannon, surmounted by crossed swords argent. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Stangrim Noueman. This was was dated 1166, in the Pipe Rolls of Norfolk, during the reign of King Henry 111rd, 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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