This famous surname is Scottish. It is locational and was originally spelt Hoppryngel, Hoppringle, Hopringle or even Obrinkel and Oppringyle. It derives from an estate known as the lands of Hoppringel, near the village of Stow, in the former county of Roxburghshire. The derivation is from the Old English word "hop" meaning an enclosed valley, and Prjonn, a Norse-Viking personal name of the pre 7th century. To these elements was added the suffix "gil", another word which has the same meaning of an enclosed valley or ravine. The surname dates back to the 13th Century (see below), making it one of the earliest to be recorded anywhere. Examples of these first recordings include: Elys de Obrinkel, a tenant of the bishop of St. Andrews in Edinburgh, who rendered homage to the short-lived Scottish republican government of 1296. This government was overthrown by Robert, The Bruce, in 1306, and Thomas de Oppringyl, also recorded as Hoprynglil, who appears in the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland in 1368. The first example in in the more or less modern spelling is believed to be John Pryngel of Fife, in the chartulary of St. Andrew's Priory in the year 1406. Early church registers list the christenings of John Pringell on November 6th 1603 at Kelso, Roxburghshire, and of William Pringle, on January 31st 1621, at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster. A Coat of Arms granted to the Pringle family of Stichill, Roxburghshire in 1683, has the blazon of an Azure field, charged with three golden escallops, the sign of the pilgrim. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Sir Robert de Hoppryngil. This was dated 1265, when he witnessed a gift of land to the Hospital of Soltre, during the reign of King Alexander 111 of Scotland, 1249 - 1286. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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