This surname of ANGST is the Americanized form of the name ANGSTADT and the name has numerous variant spellings which include ENG, ENGH, ENGMAN, ENGBERG, ENGDAHL, ENGLUND and ENGSTREOM. It is an English and Swedish locational name meaning 'of the Ing-land' - the meadow land by the stream. Local names usually denoted where a man held his land, and indicated where he actually lived. Surnames derived from placenames are divided into two broad categories; topographic names and habitation names. Topographic names are derived from general descriptive references to someone who lived near a physical feature such as an oak tree, a hill, a stream or a church. Habitation names are derived from pre-existing names denoting towns, villages and farmsteads. Other classes of local names include those derived from the names of rivers, individual houses with signs on them, regions and whole countries. Circa. 1892 A Mr George W. Westafer of Elizabethtown, Pennsyvannia married Birdie ANGSTADT, and from this union were three children, Vera, Ruth and John. From April 1st, 1902 George was engaged as a partner with his father in a printing business, and he was also in the green-house business. The family were connected with the Lutheran Church, and were prominent in the social life of their town. In the 17th century, so-called 'soldiers' names are found as the earliest kind of hereditary surnames in Sweden. These names were derived from vocabulary words, usually martial-sounding monosyllables such as Rapp (prompt) Rask (bold), or occasionally names of animals and birds. The names were bestowed on soldiers for administrative purposes, and no doubt in some cases derived from pre-existing nicknames. Most Swedes did not adopt hereditary surnames until a century or more later, and the patronymic system was still in use in rural areas until late in the 19th century. In the absence of evidence to the contrary it is thought that people may have adopted their surname from the area in which they lived. In the Middle Ages heraldry came into use as a practical matter. It originated in the devices used to distinguish the armoured warriors in tournament and war, and was also placed on seals as marks of identity. As far as records show, true heraldry began in the middle of the 12th century, and appeared almost simultaneously in several countries of Western Europe.