This most unusual surname is mainly of Cornish origin, and is a topographical name for a dweller in a homestead by a stream, from the Cornish element "tre", homestead, village, a common placename element in Wales and Cornwall, and the Middle English "bekke", a stream. Topographical surnames were some of the earliest names to be created, as topographical features, whether natural or man-made, provided obvious and convenient means of identification. The name may also have derived from a lost village composed of the same elements as above, which disappeared from maps as a result of "clearings" to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 14th Century, or as a result of the Black Death of 1348. Further examples of the surname include the following: the christening of Maria, daughter of Johannin and Francisae Tribbicke, on September 23rd 1630 at Pipe Ridware, Staffordshire; the marriage of Simeon Trebic and Grace Blake on April 23rd 1632 at Plympton Erle in Devonshire; and the christening of William George Tribbeck on February 20th 1848 at St. Andrew's, Holborn, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John and Fraunces Trybbicke, which was dated January 18th 1623, christening witness at St. Andrew's, Holborn, London, during the reign of King James 1st of England and V1 of Scotland, 1603 - 1625. 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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