This unusual and interesting name can be either English or French in origin. As an English name, it is an Anglo-Saxon locational surname deriving from the place called "Caville" or "Cavil" near Howden in East Yorkshire. The place is recorded in the Yorkshire Charters of 959 as "Cafeld" and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Chevede", and means "jackdaw pasture", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century, "ca", jackdaw and "feld", pasture, open country. The first recording of the surname, below, is from this source and uses the Norman prefix "de" to indicate a person's place of origin. In later recordings the "de" is dropped as happened with most English locational surnames. However, in the late 17t Century, the name "de Caville" was reintroduced into England by Huguenot refugees; the christening of Pierre de Caville was recorded in London in 1690. George de Caville married Elizabeth Davies in St. James's, Piccadilly, London on November 9th 1861. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Tomas de Kavill, which was dated 1190, The Yorkshire Pipe Rolls, during the reign of King Richard I, "The Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. 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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