This unusual name has two possible origins, the first of which is Scottish but is ultimately of Norman origin, and is a locational surname from the place called 'Haineville' or 'Henneville' in Manchester. The placename derives from the Germanic personal name 'Hagano', which means 'hawthorn' and was originally a nickname, found in medieval England as 'Hain' and 'Heyne', with the Olde French word 'ville', meaning settlement, village. The surname as Ham(m)ill and Hom(m)ill was most commonly found in the area known as 'Roughwood' in Ayrshire. The second origin is from an Anglo-Saxon nickname for a scarred or maimed person, from the Olde English pre 7th Century 'Hamel' meaning 'scarred, mutilated'. Henry Hammill was christened on the 27th September 1739 at St. Dunstan's Stepney, in London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Willaim de Hameville, which was dated circa 1194, The Records of Holm Cultram, during the reign of King William, The Lion of Scotland, 1165 - 1214. 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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