This interesting surname is a variation of Cottle, itself having two possible origins. Firstly, it may be a metonymic occupational name for a maker of chainmail, a type of flexible armour consisting of riveted metal rings or links, from the Old French "cot(t)e", coat of mail. Also, it may be a metonymic occupational name for a cutler, from the Old French "co(u)tel" or "co(u)teau", a knife (from the late Latin "cultellus", a diminutive of "culter", a ploughshare). The surname itself dates from the 11th Century (see below). Adam Cotella is recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Dorset in 1167, and Walter Cotel is mentioned in the Curia Rolls of Oxfordshire of 1206. On May 11th 1559, at St. Dunstan in the East, London, Joane Cuttle married Richard Bell. At St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, London, a lady by the surname Cuttell married Wyllm Bryght on January 16th 1616. The name in the modern idiom is found as Cottel(l), Cuttill, Cuttle, Cuttel and Cottle. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Beringarius Cotel, which was dated 1084, in the "Geld Roll of Wiltshire", 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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