This unusual name is of Cornish or Breton origin, and is one of the diminutive forms of the personal name "Joel; which itself is a later development of a Celtic personal name, in Old Breton "Indhael". The name is composed of the elements "Iud", meaning lord, chief, and "(c)hael", generous, bountiful, and was borne by a 7th Century saint, a King of Brittany who abdicated and spent his last years in a monastery. The original name has generated a wide variety of modern surnames, some of them apparently far removed from their source: the variants range from Jekll, Jiggle, Giggle, Joel and Joule to the diminutives Jickling, Gollin, Golling and Gollard and the patronymics Jiggins, Jukes and Gollin(g)s. One, Edward Golling was married to Katherin Sneath on June, 24th 1671, in Somerby by Granthan, Lincolnshire, and one John Golling was christened in London in July 1680. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alexander Jolleen, which was dated 1196, in the "Lincolnshire Curia Rolls", during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "The Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. 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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