This unusual name is a dialectal variant form of the modern South Hall or Southall. The derivation is from the Olde English "suth" meaning "south" plus "halh" or "heall", the former being a remote valley, the latter a hall, a building which could be used for a variety of purposes, from a house to a council chamber or court-house. In fact the spelling as "Sutehall" nearly preserves the medieval origin of Southall" in Middlesex, which was recorded in the Curia Regis Rolls of 1206, in the reign of King John (1199 - 1216) as "Sudhalle" and "Sudhale". The name is therefore habitational and derives from either Southall in Middlesex or Southall in Worcestershire and Shropshire. Recordings of the name include the following examples: Nycholas Sowthall, who married Jone Fuller at St. Olave, Old Jewry, London on April 28th 1595, Jane Suthell, christened at St. Andrew's by the Wardrobe, London, on September 16th 1638, and Charles Sutehall, christened at St. Mary Magdalene, Woolwich, on June 20th 1819, in the reign of George 111 (1760 - 1820). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Nicholas de Suthale, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Norfolk", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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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