Lavarack - Name

This unusual and interesting name is of medieval English origin, and is a peculiarly northern English form of the nickname surname 'Lark', usually found in Northumberland and Yorkshire. The modern surname, found as 'Laverick', 'Lavarack' and 'Laverock' is in fact very close to its original form, since the derivation of the name is from the Olde English pre 7th Century 'lawerce', in Middle English 'lavero(c)k' and 'lark'. As a nickname the term was used of someone notable for being a good singer and of a cheerful, blithe disposition, perhaps too an early riser. It could also have been a metonymic occupational name for someone who trapped the birds and sold them for the cooking pot. William Lavarack and Sarah Long were married at St. Mary's, in Marylebone, London, on the 31st March 1799. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Juliana Laveroc, witness, which was dated 1243, Assize Court Records of Co. Durham, during the reign of King Henry III, The Frenchman, 1216 - 1272. 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.