This name derives form the Olde English pre 7th Century 'bolla' meaning a bowl or drinking vessel, plus the agent suffix -er (one who does or makes something), and was originally given as an occupational name to a maker or seller of bowls. In Medieval times bowls were hewen from wood as well as made from earthenware. The surname from this source is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century, (see below). One, Robert le Boller appears in the 'Writs of Parliament for London', dated 1301, and a John Foune, 'boller', in the 'Register of the Freemen of York' dated 1336. The name, with variant spellings Bowler, Bouller, Booler and Boler is particularly well recorded in London church registers from the late 16th century. On April 23rd 1581 Raphe Bowler and Agnes Bradley were married in St. Margaret Pattens, and on October 22nd 1592 Nicholas Bouler married an Emry Barles in St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury. Rachel Boller and Edward Nash were married in Ealing on September 28th 1763. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John le Bolour, which was dated 1273 - 'The Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire', during the reign of King Edward I, 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.

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