This ancient and distinguished surname, having long associations with the south-western English counties of Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset, and with Yorkshire in the north, has two distinct possible sources, each with its own history and derivation. Firstly, Arundel may be of Norman-French origin, introduced by the Normans in the wake of the Conquest of 1066, and a nickname for someone thought to resemble a swallow, from the Old French "(h)arondel", a diminutive of "arond", swallow. The surname from this source has the distinction of being first recorded in the Domesday Book (see below), and further early examples include: Robert Arundel (Dorset, 1130), and Osbert Arundel, Harundel (Yorkshire, 1154). The Domesday tenant-in-chief has left his name in Sampford Arundel (Somerset) which he held in 1086. Arundel may also be of Anglo-Saxon origin, and a locational name from a Sussex parish thus called, recorded as "Harundel" in the Domesday Book, and so named from the Olde English pre 7th Century "harhun-dell", valley of the hoarhound flower. Early locational surnames include: John de Arundell (Cornwall, 1292), and Robert de Arundell (Sussex, 1332). The three principal Cornish families of the name settled there from the early 13th Century, belong to Lanherne, Trerice and Menadarva. The name has also been continuously associated with the Munster county of Cork since the end of the 13th Century when Robert de Arundel was coroner of Ibawn. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Rogerius Arundel or Harundel, which was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book of Dorset and Somerset, during the reign of King William 1, known as "William the Conqueror", 1066 - 1087. 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.

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