Double-barrelled surnames, usually created following a marriage between two families, have no overall meaning as a unit, but the separate parts have their own meaning and derivation. In this instance, the name Bartels has two distinct possible origins. Firstly, it may be a
patronymic from the male
given name Bartel, itself a
diminutive of Bart from Bartholomew, ultimately from the Aramaic "bar-talmay" i.e. "son of Talmay", a name meaning "having many furrows" in the sense "rich in land". The second possibility is that Bartles is
locational from a place in West Lancashire called Bartle. The final "s" attached to the name preserves the
Old English genitive ending i.e. "of Bartle". On August 24th 1739 Anna Margaretta Bartels, an enfant, was
christened in St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, London. Ellis derives from the
Medieval male given name Elis, the vernaculour form of the
Greek Elias, from the
Hebrew Eliyahu meaning, "Jehovah is God". One, Elyas
de Westone appears in Documents relating to the
Danelaw, Lincolnshire circa 1160. In January 1634 Richard Ellis, aged 29 yrs, embarked from London on the ship "Bonaventure" bound Virginia. He was one of the earliest recorded
namebearers to settle in the
New World. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Elyas, which was dated 1200 "The
Poll Tax Returns Records of Yorkshire", during the reign of King John known as "
Lackland", 1199 - 1216. 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.