This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Pagan.' A very familiar font-name in the 13th century, and earlier, leaving a large legacy to our directories in the shape of Paine, Payn, Payne, and their other forms (q.v). Edmundus filing Pagani (Domesday). For a history of this word, v. Gibbon's Decline and Fall. For diminutives, v. Paynel and Pannett.

Paganus de Vilers, temp. 1109: Lincolnshire Survey.

Geoffrey, s. Paganus: ibid.

Pagan de Shenefeld: Pipe Roll, 11 Henry.

Pagan de Staning: ibid.

Pagan a la Legh, Wiltshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Pagan de la Hale, Kent, ibid.

Roger fil. Pagan, Devon, ibid.

This surname has been gradually shuffled off or changed into Paine, Payne, &c, the bearers not caring to be so entitled. Yet it is one of the most interesting names in our directories.

This surname is described by Bardsley as "one of the most interesting names in our directories." Paganus was a favorite personal name among the Normans (e.g. Paganus de Brausa, 1124, REG., I), and in French was reduced to Payen and Pain and Paine. It is also a pre-Conquest name in England, Ralph Pagan occurring in a document of 1055. The word "originally denoted the inhabitant of a pagus or country district. As such people were late in receiving new ideas, the modern notion of pagan developed out of the word" (Giles, A Short manual of comparative philology, 1901, p. 67). "Either in the sense of habitation or patriotism, Pagano was erected into a Christian name in Italy, and Payen in France; whence England took Payne or Pain, still one of the most frequent surnames" (Yonge, p. 202). Paganus was chaplain in Glasgow, c. 1180 (Kelso, 338), Uctred filius Pagani gifted the lands of Carnebro to Paisley before 1265 (RMP., p. 310; Pap. Lett., I, p. 107). The surname is found in the west and southwest of Scotland records for more than three centuries back. Isobel Pagan (c. 1741-1821) was an unfortunate minor poetess, and Theodore Pagan is author of The Convention, of the Royal Burghs of Scotland, Glasgow, 1926.

(Latin) Heathen [Englishpagan; Latin pagan-us, (lit.) a rustic] Pagan-us.—Domesday Book.

Pagan de la Hale.—Hundred Rolls Cp. Payne.

Paganus was a Norman personal name, whence the modern Payne and Paine, as well as the more ancient Paganel and Paynel. Pagan, however, exists at this day among English surnames. See 16th Report of Registr. Gen. The history of this word is not a little remarkable: I shall give it in the words of Gibbon.

From the Norman personal name Paganus; a peasant or countryman; one living in a pagus, i. e. a village or country town. Hence Pain, Paine, Pane, Pen, Paganellus, Pagnel, Paganel, Paynel; Fitz-Payne or Fitz-Pen, by corruption Phippen.