This very unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is found almost exclusively in the south-eastern counties of England. It is a locational surname deriving from the place called Poyle in Surrey, formerly a village, but now a locality at the western end of Heathrow Airport. The placename is derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "pol", pool, pond, deep place in a river, and sometimes referring to a stream. Locational surnames were acquired especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. The modern surname, found as Poyle, Poyl and Poile, is recorded most frequently in the counties of Sussex and Kent. One Alexander Poyle was christened in Cranbrook, Kent, on March 19th 1597, and the marriage of Christian Poile to Edward (no surname given), was recorded in Playden, Sussex, on May 17th 1652. Thomas, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Poyl, was christened on February 2nd 1691 at Goudhurst in Kent. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of George Poyle, which was dated January 5th 1575, marriage to Alice Bigg, at Cranbrook, Kent, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. 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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