This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon (German) origin, and is an English locational name from Stockeld in the parish of Spofforth, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The placename was recorded as "Stochilde" in the 1166 Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire and derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century elements "stocc" meaning trunk or stump of a tree, with "helde" a slope; hence "slope with tree-trunks". The first element may also be the Olde English "stoc" a place; hence "sloped place". During the Middle Ages when migration for the purpose of job-seeking was becoming more common, people often took their former village name as a means of identification, thus resulting in a wide dispersal of the name. The surname is first recorded in the early 13th Century (see below). One Baldewin de Stokeld is noted in the 1222 Curia Regis Rolls of Yorkshire. The variant spellings of the surname range from Stockell, Stockall, and Stockill to Stockle and Stockhill. Recordings of the surname from English Church Registers include; Briann Stokell who married Agnitem Masane on October 20th 1550 at St. Olave's, Yorkshire, and Elysabethe Stokell, who married Edward Garret on October 18th 1551 at St. Andrew's, Enfield, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas de Stochill, which was dated 1212, in the "Curia Regis Rolls of Yorkshire", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. 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.