corded as Vanden, Vinden, Vindin and Vindon, this is an English locational surname. It presumably originates from a now 'lost' medieval village which had a spelling similar to or the same as the current forms, or from an existing place with perhaps a changed spelling or vice versa. Some three thousand surnames of the British Isles do have their ancestry in 'lost' villages, so whilst still unusual, this is by no means a unique situation. An examination of gazetters and maps of the past three centuries has failed to establish where this place was, except that the surname is well recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London. The name itself suggests that it means 'The hill of vines' from the pre-medieval 'vina-denu', although another suggestion is that it is from the Welsh 'ffin' meaning boundary, and hence boundary hill. Either are quite possible, vines were grown in England as far north as Yorkshire as late as the 17th century, when the weather pattern seems to have changed to damp summers and very cold winters. Locational surnames are also 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. Spelling being at best indifferent and local accents very thick, lead to a development of 'sounds like' spellings. Early examples of surname recordings in the surviving church registers of the city of London include Abraham Vanden at St Martin Vintry on December 14th 1634, and Thomas Vinden at St Martins in the Field, Westminster, on June 2nd 1702.

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