This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Pagan,' popularly Pain and Payne. How great a favourite this font-name was in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries will be seen by a glance at the London and provincial directories. The softened form of pagan is found in Chaucer: 'The Constable, and Dame Hermegild, his wife. Were payenjs and that country everywhere.' Man of Lawes Tale. Pagan or Payn was of Norman introduction. It is curious that a great leader of atheistical principles should have borne this name. He never knew pleasure who never knew Payn,' has been said of several jovial bearers of the cognomen. This name was also used in Wales, so may have Welsh origins in some cases.

Payn de Santon, Norfolk, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Robert fil. Payn, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

Gilbert Payn, Essex, ibid.

Elis le Fil-Payn, 1297. Writs of Parliament.

Pain del Ash, 1301. Writs of Parliament.

Payne le Paumer, Close Rolls, 33 Henry III.

Payen le Doubber. Munimenta Gildhallæ Londoniensis.

Thomas Payn, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

For diminutives, v. Pannett and Paynel. Also v. Penson. It would be useless to furnish modern instances. They abound in every church register and in every city directory.

(Anglo-French-Latin ) lit. Rustic; Pagan, Heathen [Middle English pain, payn, payen, O.French payen, pagien (French païen), pagan; Latin pagan-us, villager—pag-us, village] Gilbert Payn.—Hundred Rolls Payn le Fitz-Waryn.—Parl. Writs.

Simon Payn.—Lanc. Fines (A.D. 1336).

And the trewe kinnesman, the payenes sone.—William and the Werwolf, 354.

With alle the rytes of his payen wyse.— Chaucer, Cant. Tales, A 2370.

“Villager” in Old French. Compare Latin Paganus.

(English) The rustic or countryman, a pagan; descendant of Payen (villager, later heathen).

See under Pagan. One of the greatest colonies of the Paynes is at East Grinstead, co. Sussex, where for several centuries they have been very abundant. Some of the branches, for the sake of comparative distinction, call themselves Payner!

Local. From a place called Payne, in Normandy.

Payne,Paine,Pain. —Excepting Lincolnshire, where it is but scantily represented, the different forms of this name do not occur in England north of a line drawn west from the Wash. It however, remarkable that a colony of Paynes has been established across the Scottish border in Dumfriesshire. They are rare or absent in the south - western counties and in the western midlands, excluding Herefordshire; and are mostly crowded together in the south - eastern quarter of England, especially in Essex, Kent, Sussex, Hants, Cambridgeshire, and Bucks. Lower, following other authorities, derives this name from Paganus or Paganel, a common Norman personal name, which during the Norman dynasty assumed the forms of Pagan, Paynel, Payen, and Pain, and was then one of the commonest names in England. In the 13th century it was well represented as Pain and Payn in Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, and Suffolk, and as Payn alone in Norfolk (Hundred Rolls), so that it would seem that Lower's statement that the Norfolk Paynes have kept together in that county since the 15th century does not go far enough. We learn also from the same source that one of the greatest colonies of the Paynes is at East Grinstead, in Sussex, where for several centuries they have been very abundant. The permanence of this name in the south - east quarter of England is especially noteworthy. It was numerous six centuries ago in counties where it is still established, namely, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, and probably also Sussex. For an ingenious explanation of the origin of this name through Paynel, Paganel, and Pagan I. must refer the reader to an extensive footnote in Chapter XXI. of Gibbon's "Roman Empire.".