Recorded as Tin, Tinn, Tiner, Tynar, and Tinner, this is an Anglo-Scottish surname. It is a variant of "Tyne", and can be either topographical for a person who lived by a river of the name, or occupational for somebody who worked on a river called the Tyne in Northumberlandf or Midlothian, Scotland. It may just possibly be an occupational surname for a tin miner or finisher, although these people were usually called Miner. The Northumberland river was recorded as "Tina", in Ptolemy's "Geography" of the year 150 a.d. almost certainly the oldest map of Britain ever recorded, and as "Tine", in the year 875 a.d in the famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. The river name probably means "river" and is derived from the root "ti", as in the Olde English pre 7th century word "thinan", meaning to dissolve. The river in England has also given its name to the places Tynemouth, Tyneham, Tynedale, and others. This surname whilst never popular is quite widely recorded. Early examples taken from surviving church registers of the diocese of Greater London include: William Tin, at St Mary Whitechapel on November 27th 1616, William Tiner at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on August 28th 1639, John Tynar at St Botolphs Bishopgate, on December 12th 1643, and Fraunces Tinner who married Anne Howard at St James Clerkenwell, on February 22nd 1674. 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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