This is an English habitational and dialectal surname recorded as Diben, Dibben and Dibbin. There are at least two possible locations from which the surname could have originated. These are the villages of Depden in Suffolk, eight miles from Bury St. Edmunds, and "Dibden" in the county of Hampshire, near Southampton. They share the same derivation, this being from the old English pre 7th Century "deop", meaning "deep" and "denu", a valley. Both villages are also recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book, and apparently also share the same local pronunciation of "Dibben". The surnames are first recorded in the 13th Century (see below). Early examples of the surname recordings include Ricardus Depeden, who is registered in the Poll Tax rolls of the county of Yorkshire in 1379, whilst Richard Depeden was recorded in the Close Rolls of Cambridge in 1399. Other examples are those of Suzan Dibbine, who married Thomas Clement at Almer, Dorset, on September 4th 1563, while at Bishops Candle in the same county Thomas Diben, the son of John Diben was christened on February 12th 1590. Thomas Dibben who died in 1741, was previously chaplain to the Lord Privy Seal of Great Britain at the Congress of Utrecht in 1713. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Randolph de Depeden, which was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls of the county of Oxfordshire, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.

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