This is an English locational name, from 'Cartledge' in Derbyshire. The derivation is from a combination of the Old Norse 'kartr' meaning 'rocky ground' and the Old English pre 7th Century 'loecc' meaning boggy stream. Locational names were usually given to the lord of the manor and to the local inhabitants and especially to those people who moved away from their original home places and went to live or work in another village or town. The name development has included Richard de Cartlege (1290 Cheshire) and Thomas Cartlidge (1641 Sheffield), the latter being the earliest recorded spelling of the variant form of Cartlidge. The marriage of Richard Cartledge and Elizabeth Watson was recorded at Dronfield, near Chesterfield in Derbyshire, on January 25th 1561. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard de Cartelache (witness), which was dated 1290, Assize Rolls, Cheshire, during the reign of King Edward 1, 'The Hammer of the Scots', 1272-1307. 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.