This interesting and unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from any one of the places called "Ryal" and "Ryle" in Northumberland, and "Ryhill" in Humberside and West Yorkshire. These places all mean "rye hill", derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "ryge", rye, and "hyll", hill. The place in Northumberland called Ryal is recorded as "Ryhill" in 1242; those called Ryhill in Yorkshire as "Rihull" in 1219 and "Rihella" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and Ryle in Northumberland as "Ryel" in 1256. A further possible source for the modern surname, found variously as Ryle, Royle, Royal(l), Ryal(l) and Ryhill, is the place called Royle in Lancashire, so called from the Olde English "ra", roe deer, and "hyll", hill. One Anne Royle was married to James Tomkyns on February 13th 1592 at St. Helen's Church, Bishopsgate, London. A Coat of Arms granted to Royle families in Canterbury in Kent and Lestwick in Cheshire is silver a bend between three red crosses. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Bernard de Royl, which was dated 1230, in the "Close Rolls of Cheshire", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.