This is a name which would originally have been greeted with less than joy by the 8th century inhabitants of England. It is of 8th century Danish-Viking origins and derives from the Old Scandanavian "Thor" the pagan god from which we have the modern "Thursday" plus "stein" - a stone or rock. This type of compound given name was very popular with the Vikings, symbolising war, nature, religion and ferocity, in fact a mirror of their normal way of life! The original personal name was recorded as Turstan or Thurstan in the 1086 Domesday Book of England, and from these spellings developed a wide range of local dialectal variants including Thurstan, Thursting, Tustin, Tutin, Tution, Testin and even Dusting! The name was very popular amongst the Norman Invaders of 1066, who themselves were of Viking stock, - the original Norsemen. The change from the "baptismal" Thurstan to the surname is late 12th century (see below), and early examples include Wimmer Turstan in the rolls of Ely Abbey, Suffolk, in 1221, John Turstein in the Somerset Rolls of 1250, and William Thurston of Warwickshire in 1297. The later forms of the spelling include William Testin, a witness at the famous church of St Botolphs without Aldergate, London, on March 16th 1627, John Tueton of Rotherham, Yorkshire, in 1653, and John Tutin, also of Yorkshire, in the Friary Rolls of the county in 1692. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Oswald de Turstun, which was dated circa 1120, in the Danelaw Rolls of Suffolk, during the reign of King Henry 1 known as "The lion of justice" 1100 - 1135. 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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