This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a lcoational surname deriving from any one of various places; Greendale in Devonshire, Grindale in East Yorkshire, or Grindle in Shropshire. Greendale in Devon is recorded as "Grendil" in circa 1200, and also gave its name to Greendale or Gindle Brook, "Grendel" in the "Saxon Charters" of 963. The name is derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "gren", green, with "dael", valley. Grindale in Yorkshire, recorded as "Grendele" in the Domesday Book of 1086, is named with the same elements, while Grindle in Shropshire, which appears as "Grenhul" in "Antiquities of Shropshire" circa 1190, means "green hill", from the Old English "gren", green, with "hyll", hill. The surname from these sources, found as Grindal(l), Grindel(l) and Grindle, may in some cases be topographical in origin, denoting residence in a green valley or near a green hill. Among the recordings of the name in London is that of the marriage of Richard Gringle and Mary Cockine, in Wandsworth, on August 19th 1627. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Aedricus Grendel, which was dated 1180, in the "Pipe Rolls of Worcestershire", 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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