Clausen-Thue

As with many Old English personal names, such as 'Alfgar', composed of the disparate elements 'aelf', elf, and 'gari', spear, most double-barrelled names are a result of a marriage between two families, where the resulting name has no overall meaning, but the separate elements have their own meaning and derivation. In this instance the name Clausen, a variant of the ancient Greek name, Nicholas, with Claus being the Danish/German variant celebrated in Santa Claus. The Coat of Arms for Clausen of Bavaria is two facing gold rampant lions, holding keys on a black field. Thue has two possible origins, the first being an ancient 'status' name from an Old Norse word 'thewar', in Old English pre 7th Century 'theow', and meaning a slave or bondsman. The second possible origin is from the German short form of the given name 'Mathiess', meaning 'Gift of God'. Both Clausen and Thue are prevalent in Denmark and Germany. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Clausen-Thue (christening), which was dated June 18th 1837, St. Mark's, Kennington, London, during the reign of Queen Victoria, 'The Great White Queen', 1837-1901. 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.