Recorded in several spellings as shown below, this is an English surname. It has two possible origins. The first being an occupational name for a goatherd. This is a derivation from the Olde English pre 7th Century word "ticcen" meaning a "kid goat ". The second and most likely is that it derives from Thiess or Thais, short forms of the famous biblical personal name Mathiess or Matthias, from the Hebrew word meaning "a gift of God". Matthias was the name of the apostle chosen to succeed Judas Iscariot. If so, this was a Crusader name, one introduced into Europe during or immediately after the famous eight crusades to the Holy Land in the 12th century. These all attempted unsuccessfully as it happens, to try to wrest control of Jerusalem from the Muslims. Although they failed, their efforts combined with a Christian Revival at the time lead to the adoption of all manner of names loosely connected with the bible. This surname with the other and sometimes earlier forms such as Tice, Tick, Ticke, Ticks, Tyce, Tise and Ties, are all recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London, from Elizabethan times. Examples include that on January 5th 1559, of John Tyse christened at St. Mary Magdalane, Bermondsey, whilst William Tick was a christening witness at St Sepulrchre church, on August 10th 1772. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes 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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