This interesting British surname has a number of possible sources. Firstly, it may be medieval and occupational for an enameller, from an aphetic form of the Norman French word "esmail" meaning enamel. Secondly and again occupational it may derive from the Old French word "maille", meaning mail or mesh, and would have been an occupational name for a maker of chain mail. Thirdly it can be of Scottish origin, and locational from a place in the former county of Perthshire. This was recorded as Malere in 1296, and as Maller in 1380. The derivation is probably from the Gaelic elements "maol", meaning bare, and "ard", a height, a reference to a mountain. Fourthly it may be of Welsh origin, with two possible derivations: Either locational from Maelor in Clwyd, so called from the Welsh personal name Mael, with or, meaning land or territory, or from the personal name "Meilyr", composed of the elements "maglos", chief, with "rix", a ruler. Walter Meyler is noted in the Hundred Rolls of Shropshire in1255, whilst on April 15th 1583, Robert Maylor married Magdalen Gardner at St. Margaret's Westminster. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William le Maillier. This was dated 1203, in the "Pipe Rolls of Warwickshire", during the reign of King John of England, 1199 - 1216. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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