This is an English locational surname, but one of French origins. It derives from the town of Vatierville in the departement of Seine, the change to the modern spelling being as a result of language and dialectal changes over the centuries. The surname is first recorded in the famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicles of the year 1137 when Hugo de Wateruile appears in East Anglia. It must be assumed that he was the descendant of an earlier name holder who may have come over with William, The Conqueror, in 1066 and who been rewarded by the grant of lands in the East Anglian region, for services rendered in the Conqest. This first recording is some eighty years after England had come under full Norman control, but even then it seems that many places still retained the ancient recording systems, which stretched back to the 6th century. Other early recordings include those of Ascelina de Watervill of Lincoln in the year 1205, whilst Roger Wateruile appears in Cambridge in 1327. Somewhere in the next three centuries as the language moved to what is now called Standard English, this name was itself "anglicised", with an example being John Waterfield in the registers of Oxford University for the year 1601.

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