Streets - Name

Recorded as Streat, Strete, Street, Streeten, Streeter, and Streets, this is an English medieval surname. It can be either locational from the town of Street in the county of Somerset, or the villages of Street in Hereford or Kent, or it can be topographical from living by a 'street'. This word was a derivative of the Olde English pre 6th century 'straet', meaning a paved road. However originally there may have been a more specific meaning of the Roman road, as all the known places called Street, are situated on such roads, and straet derives from the Latin word 'strassa'. Before the Roman Invasion of Britain in 55 a.d, there were no paved roads as such, the ancient English word to describe any sort of road being 'wey'. The first recorded spelling of the family name is that of Modbert de Strete in the list of Olde English names dating from the year 1130, Roger Stret in the Pipe Rolls of Norfolk in 1199, William de la Stret of Devon in 1228, and John Streter in the Pipe Rolls of Sussex in 1332. This was during the reign of King Edward 111rd of England, 1327 - 1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.