The surname of ANDREWS was a baptismal name 'the son of Andrew' meaning manly. Early records of the name mention Andrew (without surname) was a monk of Dunfermline, and became bishop of Caithness in the reign of David I Willelmus Anderewe, of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Thomas Andreu was the vicar of Bristol in County Norfolk, in the year 1442. Malcolm Andree was a tenant of the bishop of Aberdeen in 1511. Thomas Fuller and Elizabeth Andrewes were married in London in the year 1619. The name was a very popular font name in the 12th century in Scotland, but it soon became widespread all over England and Europe. The use of fixed surnames or descriptive names appears to have commenced in France about the year 1000, and such names were introduced into Scotland through the Normans a little over one hundred years later, although the custom of using them was by no means common for many years afterwards. During the reign of Malcolm Ceannmor (1057-1093) the latter directed his chief subjects, after the custom of other nations, to adopt surnames from their territorial possessions, and there created 'The first erlis that euir was in Scotland'. This Scottish and English surname is in Ireland in all the provinces since the early seventeenth century and is now numerous in Dublin and north-east Ulster. It has been sometimes used as a synonym of MacAndrew, and that name was found frequently in medieval records. Ireland was one of the earliest countries to evolve a system of hereditary surnames. They came into being fairly generally in the 11th century, and indeed a few were found before the year 1000. Most of the European surnames in countries such as England, Scotland and France were formed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The process had started somewhat earlier and had continued in some places into the 19th century, but the norm is that in the tenth and eleventh centuries people did not have surnames, whereas by the fifteenth century most of the population had acquired a second name.
The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884.
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