Hoyle - Meno

This unusual and interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a topographical surname found particularly in the north and north-west of England, where it used as a dialectal variant of the southern name Hole or Houle. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century term "holh", hole, hollow, depression, used as a topographical surname for someone who lived in or by a hollow or low-lying spot. Topographical surnames were among the earliest created, since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided easily recognisable distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages. The modern surname from this source can be found as Hoyle, Hoile, and the genitive forms Hoyles and Hoiles, the "s" indicating "of" such a place. The marriage of Richard Hoyle and Johanna Gledhill was recorded at Elland in Yorkshire, on June 15th 1573. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas de Hoyle, which was dated 1248, in the "Curia Regis Rolls of Yorkshire", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.