This interesting and unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a topographical surname denoting someone who lived on or by a slope or the side of a hill. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century word 'Slinn', slope, related to the Olde Swedish word 'Slind' and the Norwegian 'Slein'. The surname is first recorded in the Olde Swedish form of 'de Slinde' in the Sussex Subsidy Rolls of 1332. The name development has included Elizabeth Sline (1731, Lancashire), Jonathan Slenn (Hants 1776) and Thomas Slyne (1858, ibid.). The name is well recorded in Yorkshire in the 18th Century and 19th Century, as in Ann Slinn, married to Mathew Hydes in 1784 in Sheffield. Isabell Slinn married Thomas Chester in London in 1639. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Agnes Slinn, daughter of Umphrey, christened, which was dated 9th June 1596, St. Antholin's, Budge Row, London, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Good Queen Bess, 1558 - 1603. 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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