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The Anglo-Saxon name Thoran comes from when the family resided near a thorn bush or hedge. Thoran is a local surname, which belongs to the category of hereditary surnames. Other types of local surnames include topographic surnames, which could be given to a person who lived beside any physical feature, such as a hill, stream, church or type of tree. Habitation names form the other broad category of surnames that were derived from place-names. They were derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads. Other local names are derived from the names of houses, manors, estates, regions, and entire counties. The surname Thoran comes from the Old English or Old Norse words which mean thorn. The surname Thoran may also be a habitational surname, for someone who came from a place named with this word, for example Thorne, in Somerset, or Thorns, in Suffolk. The Thoran family's origins date back to the period prior to the Norman Conquest of 1066, to the county of Somerset, where they resided at Thorne-Falcon and Thorne-St. Nargaret.
The surname Thoran was first found in Somerset at Thorn(e) St. Margaret, a parish, in the union of Wellington, hundred of Milverton, about 3½ miles (W.) from Wellington. 1 The place name dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086 when it was first listed as Torne. 2
Some of the first records of the name include: Adam atte Thorne; and William de Thorn who were both listed in Kirby's Quest at the time of Edward III. 3 4 The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 lists the following: Hugh Thorne in Cambridgeshire; and John de Thorn in Devon. 4
"At Thorne, [Devon] a family of that name were seated from the reign of King John till the early part of the seventeenth century. " 5
To confuse matters, another noted historian claims "the name is local, from Thornes in the parish of Shenstone, in the county of Stafford, where Robert, son of Roger de la Thorne, was resident early in the fourteenth century." 6 The integrity of this researcher bears no doubt.
However, we wish to have the reader note that this entry is significantly later that the previous entries and as such, in our opinion, is a later branch of the family. Great Thorness is a hamlet on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Thoran research. Another 136 words (10 lines of text) covering the years 1206, 1272, 1275, 1296, 1397, 1527, 1568, 1573, 1610 and 1630 are included under the topic Early Thoran History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
The English language only became standardized in the last few centuries; therefore,spelling variations are common among early Anglo-Saxon names. As the form of the English language changed, even the spelling of literate people's names evolved. Thoran has been recorded under many different variations, including Thorn, Thorne and others.
Notables of the family at this time include John Thorne, Abbott of Reading, who was personally starved by King Henry VIII.
William Thorne (fl. 1397), was an English historian, a monk of St. Augustine's, Canterbury and Robert Thorne (d. 1527), was an English merchant and geographical writer, the son...
Another 47 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Thoran Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
For many English families, the political and religious disarray that shrouded England made the far away New World an attractive prospect. On cramped disease-ridden ships, thousands migrated to those British colonies that would eventually become Canada and the United States. Those hardy settlers that survived the journey often went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Analysis of immigration records indicates that some of the first North American immigrants bore the name Thoran or a variant listed above: William Thorne settled in St. John's Newfoundland in 1762; Richard Thorne was a property owner and fisherman of Torbay, Newfoundland, in 1794; Joseph Thorn settled in Boston Mass in 1712.