This unusual name is of English locational origin, coming from the place called Pendock, in Worcestershire. The placename is first recorded in 875 as Peonedoc and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Penedoc. The name is Welsh, deriving from "Pen", meaning "hill" and "heiddiog" (earlier heiddioc) meaning "of barley" or "barley field". The meaning of the placename is thus "the hill where barley was grown" or "the end of the barley field". "Pendock" is located on the lower slope of Malvern Hill. Locational names were given especially to those who left their original home places and went to live or work in another town. One Joseph Pendock married mary Evans at St. James, Dukes Place, London on the 4th April 1689. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Pendocke, Christened. which was dated 10th June 1556, Upton on Severn, Worcestershire. during the reign of Queen Mary I, Bloody Mary, 1553 - 1558. 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.