This surname is a topographical name for someone who lived by a fish trap in a river deriving from the Middle English "stell" (Old English "stiell") meaning a "a place for catching fish". It can also be a nickname for a placid person deriving from Middle English (Middle High German) "still", Old English "stille", or Old High German "stilli" meaning "calm" or "quiet". The surname date's back to the mid 11th Century, (see below). Further recordings include Lefwinus Stille (1166) "The Pipe Rolls of Sussex", and Richard le Stille (1275) "The Subsidy Rolls of Worcestershire". Variations in the idiom of the spelling include Stell, Stiller, Stiller(t), etc. Easter, daughter of Thomas Still, was christened at St. Andrew, Holborn on June 29th 1595, and Nathaniel Still married Jane Whitmore in London in 1610. John Still (1543-1608) was bishop of Bath and Wells, and one William Still, a famine emigrant, sailed from Liverpool aboard the Charles-Humberton bound for New York on June 15th 1846. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Aluuinus Stilla, which was dated 1086 - "The Domesday Book", during the reign of King William 1, known as "William the Conqueror", 1066 - 1087. 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.