This interesting name is of English origin, and is a locational surname from a place so called in Cumberland. The original name of this place was recorded as "Luguvall(i)um" in 425, according to "Bocking's Notices of Rank"; as "Luel", circa 1050, in "St. Cuthberts History"; and as "Caerleoil" in the Pipe Rolls of Cumberland in 1130. The original name is generally explained as meaning "the wall of the god Lugus". The Old Welsh form is "Caer liwelyd", "caer" being the Celtic word for a castle or a fort. However, Sedgefield's "Placenames" suggests derivation from the Old British (pre Roman) personal name "Luguvalos", with the prefix "Caer", as before. Locational surnames were usually acquired by a local landowner, or by the lord of the manor, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. As would be expected, the name is common in Scotland and Northern Ireland also, the variants in the modern idiom being Carlyle, Carlile, Crlill and Carleil. An interesting namebearer was one Nicholas Carlisle (1771 - 1847), who was an antiquary born at York; he compiled topographical dictionaries, family histories and similar works. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Odard de Carlyle, witness, which was dated circa 1158, recorded at Carlisle, Cumberland, during the reign of King Malcolm 1V of Scotland, 1154 - 1165. 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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