This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is locational, originating in the place called Cavendish in Suffolk. The placename is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Kavandisc", and by 1242 as "Cavenedis". The meaning of the name is "Cafna's pasture", derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Cafna", itself from "Caf", meaning "bold, daring", plus "edisc", meaning "enclosure or pasture". Locational surnames, such as this, were usually acquired by a local landowner, or by the lord of the manor, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, usually in search or work, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. In the modern idiom the surname can be found recorded as Candish and Cavendish. The marriage of William Candish and Mary Tobey was recorded on October 27th 1637, at St. Katharine by the Tower, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Simon de Cavendis, which was dated 1201, in "Records of Pleas before the King", Suffolk, during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. 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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