This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a topographical surname for someone who lived by a high or prominent rock. The name derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "stan", stone, often, when used as a first element in placenames, implying a particularly prominent stone, with "rocc", rock. There are places called Stonyrock, in Effingham, Surrey, the home of Henry de la Stanrok in 1241, and Starrock (Green), in Chipstead, Kent, where Rocius de Stonrocke was recorded in 1265, showing how the dialectal pronunciation of the name led to the occasional loss of the "n" of "stan".Topographical surnames were among the earliest created, since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided obvious distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages. One Roger ate Staurokk is listed in the Subsidy Rolls of Surrey in 1332. The name is also found in Scotland from the mid 15th Century; Laurentius Sturrok was chaplain in Aberdeen in 1448, and Alexander Storrok held a fourth part of the village of Craquhy near Dunnichen in 1509. An alternative derivation, from the Middle English "stor", livestock, to mean "farmer" or "store-master", has been advanced, but no evidence produced. The marriage of John Sturrock and Jean Watson was recorded at St. Andrew's and St. Leonard's, Fife, on July 29th 1697. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Stourok, which was dated 1275, in the "Hundred Rolls of Kent", 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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