Marrable

This unusual surname is of French origin, and has two possible sources, the first being a metonymic occupational name for a quarrier, hewer of marble, or carver of marble, and deriving from the Old French 'marbrier'. In this instance marrable is a dialectal variant of the name Marble, which is from this source. However, there is an old personal name Mirabel, which was popular in the 12th Century, and later became a surname, and it is thought that Marrable is a variant spelling of this name. The derivation is from the Old Provencal word 'Mirar', meaning to look or watch, with 'bel', handsome. There is a recording in the Petit Charenton French Huguenot Church of the christening of one Pierre Mirabel, on November 23rd 1701, whose parents were probably refugees, fleeing religious persecution in France. Thomas Marrable was christened on August 26th 1770 at Christchurch, Spitalfields, Stepney, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Lucia Mirable, which was dated 1273, Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire, during the reign of King Edward 1, '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.