This interesting and unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from any one of the places called "Ryal" and "Ryle" in Northumberland, and "Ryhill" in Humberside and West Yorkshire. These places all mean "rye hill", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "Ryge", rye, and "hyll", hill. The places in Northumberland called "Ryal" is recorded as "Ryhill" in 1242; those called "Ryhill" in Yorkshire as "Rihull" in 1219 and "Rihella" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and "Ryle" in Northumberland as "Ryel in 1256. A further possible source for the modern surname, found variously as Ryle, Royle, Royal(l), Ryal(l) and Ryhill, is the place called "Royle" in Lancashire, so called from the Old English "ra", roe deer, and "hyll", hill. The final "s" of the name preserves the old English genitive ending i.e. "of the rye hill". On December 9th 1616, Michaell Ryles married Anne phillips, at St. Giles, Cripplegate, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Bernard de Royl, which was dated 1230, Close Rolls of Cheshire, during the reign of King Henry 111, "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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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