Recorded as Quickenden, Quickendon, Quidenham, Quiddinton, Quittonden, and others, this is an English locational surname. However spelt it almost certainly originates from the parish of Quidenham in the county of Norfolk. This place has itself undergone many spellling changes over the past nine hundred years since its first appearance as Cuidenham in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, and as Quideham in 1177. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names it translates as Cwida's place, from which it has to be assumed that Cwida was an early personal name. If so it was an odd one, as it would seem to derive from the pre 7th century Olde English word "cwead" meaning dung! Locational surnames were usually "from" names or surnames given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. Spelling being at best erratic lead to the development of "sounds like" spellings, some far removed from the originals. In this case examples of surname recordings in the surviving registers of the city of London include Stockdall Quedington who married Frances Ismangale at St Dionish Backchurch in 1594, and Thomas Quickendon who married Lydia Grover at St Andrews Enfield, Middlesex, on April 15th 1781.

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