Tregale

Recorded in several forms including Thregale, Tregale, Tragel, Trigle, Triggle, Triggel, Triggol, Triggole, and possibly others, this is an English surname. It is believed to be locational from a place called Tregole, in the county of Cornwall, in the far west of England. This ancient village was first recorded as Turgoil in the famous Domesday Book of 1068, before becoming Tregoul in 1270, and Tregowel in 1306. The book of Cornish Place Names says with feeling that the meaning is 'obscure,' and the best that can be suggested is that the prefix 'tre' does mean a farmhouse in the old Cornish language, whilst the suffix could mean almost anything. Locational surnames are often 'from' names. That is to say names that were given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. Spelling being at best indifferent, and local dialects very thick, soon lead, as in this case, to the development of 'sounds like' spellings. Early examples of surname recordings in surviving church registers include Robert Trigle who married Rachell Cocke at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on October 29th 1620, Thomas Tregall, a christening witness at Probus in Cornwall, on May 29th 1673, and Alice Triggol who married William Blunt at St Benets, Pauls Place, city of London, on May 14th 1720.