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The name ADKINS originated during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth centuries in England.

Charles Bardsley states in his "English and Welsh Surnames" that "...the surname ADKINS was derived from a combination of the surname Adam and the diminutive kin." Following one tradition of the Anglo-Saxon people a well liked child would have the first syllable of his name combined with the diminutive kin to form a new name. In our case, the first syllable of Adam (Ad) was combined with the diminutive kin to form Adkin. Adkin would then be the child's pet or nickname and in many cases would become his legal name for life. In old English, the name was spelled ADEKYN, however, in later centuries the name according to Bardsley "...was sharpened to Adkin." Bardsley continues "All the other spellings were formed by misspelling." This method of name forming was also used to identify a son named after his father much as we use Jr. today. A child named after his father, Adam, would be called Adkin to indicate 'Little Adam' or son of Adam.

The first known recorded use of the name occurred two times in 1273 when a man by the name of Adam LeFullere was listed on the Hundred Roll as Adekyn LeFullere. This Adam LeFullere was most likely a son of Adam and this entry signified that he was "Little" Adam LeFullere thus Adekyn LeFullere.

The preceding has taken our name through its first transition from Adam to Adkin; following we will make the progression to Adkins. During the Thirteenth century in the London area a move had started to give all people two names. This movement was initiated because it had become nearly impossible (where large numbers of people had gathered-London for example) for record keepers such as tax collectors to differentiate people of the same given name. Although the use of two names was started for this reason, it led to the common tradition of family names, thus making it possible for people to trace their ancestry which was and still is impossible to do prior to the Thirteenth century. This two-name policy gradually spread throughout the British Isles so that by the time our ancestors came to America-early 1600s-it was in full compliance.

When this policy (giving everyone two names) was being implemented, the official charged with the responsibility would use one of five ways to gain the second name: Matrinimical - after the mother - produced such names as Janeson (Jane's son); Personal - Characteristic - giving us the names Short, Long, Redd, etc.; Location - provides names such as Hill, Lane, Rivers, etc.; Occupation - provides names such as Smith, Carpenter, Miller, etc; Patrinimical - after the father - provides names such as Stephenson, Johnson, etc. The last method led to the development of our name. A person named Adkin would have a son named Noah (for example) and the official would say "that is Noah, son of Adkin," and then list the son's name as Noah ADKINSON with the son indicating son of. After coming to America, most families dropped the "on" as ours did, and the name became Adkins with the "s" left as the indication that the name originally ended in "on".

The earliest proven records of our family from 1716 through the Revolutionary War had the name entered, most often, as Atkinson although Adkins, Adkinson, and Atkins were used. Our earliest known ancestor William V. Adkins is entered in Henrico, Goochland, Brunswick, and Lunenberg Counties of Virginia with all four of the above spellings. These different spellings of the name most often occurred as a result of record keeping misspellings. Since the Revolutionary War all known family members have spelled the name Adkins.

The many spellings of the name (Adkyn, Adkyns, Adkynson, Atkyn, Atkynson, Adkinson, Attekson, Addykin, Akin, Akins, as well as the above four) came about during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth centuries. Many people, because of their extremely primitive living conditions, did not learn to read and write thus when some government official (census taker, court clerk, etc) needed to record the name they did it phonetically or simply as they thought it should be.