This unusual name is believed to be a developed form of the early French medieval "mettet", itself, a patronymic form of the Norman "metel". All derive from the Latin "metallium", and are job-descriptive, either for one who mined "metals" or who was a worker in metals. The name is recorded as "Le Metel" in Normandy, as "Metelen" (son of Metal) in Amsterdam, and as "Meteler" in Germany. It has been suggested that "Mettetal may be habitational from some place "the metal mine" or similar but if so, we have not been able to identify any such site or supportive recordings. A "link" spelling as "Mettet" is found on December 6th 1744, when Jacque Louis Mettet was a witness at St. Germain-en-Layr, France. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Anne Catherine Mettetal, which was dated September 25th 1806, marriage to Christophe Perrenot, at Allenjorie, France, during the reign of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte 1, 1800 - 1814. 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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