Buckles

This unusual name is of early medieval English origin, and is a metonymic occupational name for a maker and/or seller of buckles. The name derives from the Middle English word "bokel", buckle, from the Old French "bocle", from the Latin "buccula", the cheek strap of a helmet, a diminutive of "bucca", cheek. In some cases the modern surname may derive from a metonymic occupational name for a shield-bearer or maker of shields, from the Middle High German "buckel", shield. The surname development has included Peter le Bucler (1203, Yorkshire) and William Bokeler (1317, Kent), while the modern surname can be found as Buckler, Buckel, Buckell and Buckles. Jane Buckler married Hugh Edwards at the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, London, in 1651. Sir Claude Henry Mason Buckle (1803 - 1894) rose to the rank of admiral in the British Navy in 1877, having been commander-in-chief at Queenstown (1867 - 1870), after a distinguished naval career. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Anschetil Buclar, which was dated 1148, in the "Winton Book", Hampshire, during the reign of King Stephen, known as "Count of Blois", 1135 - 1154. 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.