Generally recorded in the surname spellings of Bucknall, Bucknell, Bucknill and Buckenhill, this interesting surname is English. It is locational from either of two places called Bucknell in the county of Oxford or Bucknall in the county of Salopshire, now Shropshire. The derivation is from an Old English pre 7th Century personal name "Bucca", with "halh", meaning a remote valley. The earliest place name recording is probably that of Bucknell in Oxford. This appears in the Anglo-Saxon Charters of 806 a.d. in the spelling of "Bokenhale", and later in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, as "Buchehale". Bucknall in Salop appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Bucenhole", and in the year 1227 as "Buccenhal". Amongst the early recordings are those of Robert Bucknall, christened on the September 19th 1560, and Samuel Bucknell at St James church, Clerkenwell, city of London, on July 1st 1713. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Adam de Buckenhall of Oxford in the Hundred Rolls of 1273. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the 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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