Recorded in a number of spellings including IIckringill, Ickeringill, Ikringill, Hickeringill, and possibly others, this is an English and specifically Yorkshire surname. It is locational from a now "lost" medieval hamlet, believed to have been near to the town of Skipton at the entrance to the famous Yorkshire Dales and Pennines. The place name and hence the later surname, has the meaning of the valley (gil) of the Ica people (-ing). The first known recording of the place name was in 1329 as Ecorngill, whilst Ickering-gill appears in the gazetters of the year 1822, but not subsequently. "Lost" villages are a feature of the countryside of the British Isles, and it is believed that at least three thousand surnames do originate from such sources. They often provide the only public reminder of the existence of a former site. As to why these places disappeared has been the source of several books and much research particularly by the Lost medieval village trust. The usual causes are changes in farming methods over the centuries, increasing urbanisation which has literally swallowed up many former villages, although in earlier times, civil war and particularly the great plagues upto 1665, also played a major part. Early examples of the surname recording in the Friary Rolls of Yorkshire include Bejamin Ickeringill in 1670, William Ickeringale of 1679, and Will Hickeringill in 1700.