This interesting and unusual surname is of early medieval English origin, and is a locational name either from Savile (Town), a district south of Dewsbury in Yorkshire, or from any of the places in France, for example, Sauville (Ardennes, Vosges), or Sainville (Eure-et-Loire), named with the Old French "saisne", Saxon, with "ville", settlement. Locational names were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and especially to those former inhabitants who left their place of origin to live and work elsewhere. Regional and dialectal differences subsequently gave rise to several variations on the original spelling, and in the modern idiom, the name is found as Savil(l), Savil(l)e, Savills, Savell, Saywell, Seville and Sivill(s). The surname development has included: Stephen de Savile, noted in the 1277 Feet of Fines for Yorkshire, and Robert Sayuill, recorded in the 1379 Poll Tax Returns of Yorkshire. English Church Registers show the christening of Ann, daughter of John Savills, at Holy Trinity in the Minories, London, on January 17th 1790, and the marriage of Esther Sivill to Edward Ogden on October 18th 1817 in Manchester Cathedral. A Coat of Arms granted to the Savile family of Savile Hall, Yorkshire, in the reign of Henry 111 (1216 - 1272), is a silver shield, on a black bend three owls of the field. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Sayvill, which was dated 1246, in the "Feet of Fines of Yorkshire", 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.

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