Isted - Name

Said to be recorded in small numbers in some ten counties of England and Northern Ireland, this is an unusual surname. The International Genealogical Index "suggests" that it may be a form of Highstead, now a locality and formerly a village in the county of Kent, which if so, has been dialectually corrupted with this surname. However this is very possible particularly if as seems likely we are dealing with a "lost" medieval village surname. What is certain is that all "names" originally had a meaning, and it is very difficult to allocate a meaning to Isted or the other recorded spellings of Ested, Istead, Istedd and others. The place name which sounds about right is East Head, a village far away in the north of Scotland. Sadly there is no evidence of this being the source of any surname. There are a number of places called Ystrad in Wales, but there are few locational names in Wales, and Ystrad is not apparently one of them. Highstead means "high farm" or literally a farm probably further up a hill or valley than Low or Lower farm. The surname was certainly recorded in Elizabethan times (1558 - 1603) with that of Richard Isted at the church of St Michael Bassishaw, in the city of London, on May 31st 1601.