Recorded in several forms including Stofold, Stovold, Stovell, Stovall, Stoval, Stovel (English), and Stoffel, Toffel and others (German), this is a Crusader surname. Its place of origination is Greece, and it is derived from the ancient personal name Christopher, or in this case the diminutive Christophell. From this developed in Medieval times a number of short or nickname forms and in particular Toffel and Stoffel. A good example is that of Konrad Stoffel Zu Schesklingen, recorded in the German charters for the year 1363. This is later than the first English recordings (see below), but probably because many early continental registers were destroyed in the endless wars of the past thousand years. Early examples of the name recordings in England include that of Humfrey de Sovil of Buckinghamshire in the Hundred Rolls of 1273, and in the surviving registers of the city of London Robert Fortescue who married Mary Stovell at St George's chapel, Hanover Square, Westminster, in 1765, and George Stovold who married Hannah Harris at St Michael's Cornhill, in 1788. The coat of arms granted in Hamburg, Germany, has the blazon of a gold field, charged with a harts head, fully attired, proper. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Agnes de Stovile. This was dated 1273, in the Hundred rolls of the county of Cambridge, during the reign of King Edward 1st, known as 'The hammer of the Scots', 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2024