Starkin Family History

Perhaps from an unrecorded Old French personal name Starkin, a pet form of Continental Germanic names beginning in Stark- ‘strong’, such as Starc(w)ulf and Starcher, both of which appear in 1086 as names of Domesday Book tenants in E Anglia: Starcolf (Norfolk) and Starker (Suffolk). However, no medieval evidence for Starkin as a given name or a surname has been found, unless Hugh Tarchin 1307 in Subsidy Rolls (Ware Herts) bears a variant of this name in which initial S- has been lost.

An alternative possibility is a derivation from an unrecorded Middle English *starking ‘strong one’ (see Stark), but in the absence of any medieval evidence this is highly conjectural. Perhaps a variant of Starkey with -in substituted for -ey. Compare John Starkey 1603 in IGI (Smallburgh Norfolk), who is recorded a couple of miles from Jhon Starkin 1580 in IGI (Sloley Norfolk); and Johes Starkie 1561, Prudence Starkin 1612 in IGI (Thaxted Essex).

Starkey is also found in Herts, though not in the same parishes as Starkin: Tho. Starkey 1572 in IGI (Aldenham Herts); Henrici Starkey 1621 in IGI (Hatfield Herts). However, it is perhaps more likely that Starkey in these E Midland names is a variant of Starkin in (i) with loss of final -n.