This most interesting name, with variant spellings Arundale, Arundel, Arondel, Arrandale, Arrundale and Arndell, derives from two possible origins. The name may be of Anglo-Saxon locational origin from Arundel in Sussex, the seat of the Duke of Norfolk, which gets its name from the Olde English pre 7th Century word "harhune", hoarhound (a type of plant), composed of the elements "har", grey, and "hune", of uncertain origin, and the second element "dell", valley. Also the surname may have been a Norman nickname for someone supposedly resembling a swallow in some way from the Old French "arondel", from "arond", swallow. One Robert Arundel was recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Dorset in 1130; Osbert Arundel was mentioned in the "Cartularium Abbathiae de Rievalle", Yorkshire. One Roger de Arundel was listed in 1178, in the Eynsham Cartulary, Oxford. Sir Thomas Arundell of Lanherne (died 1552) was sheriff of Dorset 1531 - 1532, and member of privy chamber to Wolsey and knighted in 1533. He was executed for his share in Somerset's conspiracy, Thomas Arundell, first Baron Arundell of Wardour (1560 - 1639), was made Count of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Rudolph 11 for service against the Turks. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Rogerius Arundel, which was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book of Dorset, during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. 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.

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