Members of a Somerset family of this name APS can trace their ancestry to Thomas de Apse, who held land in the county in the reign of Edward II (1307-27). The name was originally rendered in the Old English form AEPSE. This was an English topographic name for someone who lived near an aspen tree, but occasionally perhaps used as a nickname for a timerous person, with reference to the trembling leaves of the tree. Early records of the name mention Thomas atte Apse, who was documented in County Somerset, during the reign of Edward III (1327-1377). William Aspey of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Most of the place-names that yield surnames are usually of small communities, villages, hamlets, some so insignificant that they are now lost to the map. A place-name, it is reasonable to suppose, was a useful surname only when a man moved from his place of origin to elsewhere, and his new neighbours bestowed it, or he himself adopted it. Most of the European surnames were formed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The process had started somewhat earlier and had continued in some places into the 19th century, but the norm is that in the tenth and eleventh centuries people did not have surnames, whereas by the fifteenth century most of the population had acquired a second name. Later instances mention Mary, daughter of Thomas Hepse, who was buried at St. James's, Clerkenwell, London in the year 1658, and Thomas, son of Bodwine Apps was baptised at the same church in 1694. It has long been a matter of doubt when the bearing of coats of arms first became hereditary and it was not until the Crusades that Heraldry came into general use. Men went into battle heavily armed and were difficult to recognise. It became the custom for them to adorn their helmets with distinctive crests, and to paint their shields with animals and the like. Coats of arms accompanied the development of surnames, becoming hereditary in the same way. Thomas Barker and Elizabeth Apps were married at St. George's, Hanover Square, London in the year 1787. The name has numerous variant spellings which include, Happs, Happ, Aspey, Asp, Epps Hespe and Hesp. The eagle depicted in the arms is emblematical of fortitude and magnaminity of mind. The Romans used the figure of an eagle for their ensign, and their example has been often followed. It is the device of Russia, Austria, Germany and the United States of America.