This fine and long-established surname is of early medieval English origin, and derives from the Norman personal name "Rumbald", composed of the Germanic elements "hrum", renown, and "bold", bold, brave. The name in its Latinized form "Rumbaldus" is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 for Gloucestershire. Pre 7th Century Anglo-Saxon and Norse baptismal names were usually distinctive compounds whose elements were often associated with the Gods of Fire, Water and War. Early examples of the surname from this source include: William Rumbol' (Hampshire, 1222); Roger Rumbold (Cambridgeshire, 1273); and William Rumbolt (Cambridgeshire, 1327). The following quotation from "A History of Norfolk" reads, "After the Dissolution, King Henry V111, in the year 1545, granted the impropriate rectory (of Keteringham, County Norfolk) to Robert Rumbold, and his heirs, to be held in capite by knight's service". A Coat of Arms granted to the Rumbold family of Yorkshire is a gold shield, on a red chevron three silver cinquefoils, a canton of the second charged with a leopard's face of the field, the Crest being a demi lion rampant erminois. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Rumbald, which was dated 1191, in the "Pipe Rolls of Essex", during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "Richard 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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