This interesting Scottish name is of locational origin from the place so called in the parish of Kincardine-O'Neil, Aberdeenshire and means the "mill by the craig, a rocky mound", from the Gaelic "Creag" borrowed from the medieval English "Creag(g)". During the middle Ages when migration from the country to the town was becoming more popular, people adopted their original placename as a means of identification. One Andrew Craigmyle was fined in 1626 in Aberdeenshire "For absence from the Wapinshaw" (a meeting of Clansmen to show weapons). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Elspett Cragmyll, which was dated 1570, Council Register of Aberdeen, during the reign of King James VI of Scotland 1567 - 1625. 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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