Recorded as Tachel, Tatchell and the rare Tutchell, this is a medieval English surname. According to the famous Victorian etymologist Canon Charles Bardsley, the origin is from the personal name "Tach" of the pre 7th century a.d., plus the later medieval suffix "el", a short form of little, and hence describing the son of Tach. He also claimed that the surname originated in Somerset, and certainly a William Tachel was recorded as a landowner in that county in the year 1273. However it has to be said that a Gilbert Tachel was also recorded in the Hundred Rolls of the same year, but far away in Oxfordshire, so that would not seem to be correct. We have also been unable to find any reference to a personal name of Tach, and in our opinion the surname is locational, and not patronymic. Its spelling would suggest that it is either from a now "lost" medieval village perhaps called Tach Hill or similar, and meaning the boundary marker by the hill, or that it is a slang form of Tattershall, a village near Horncastle in Lincolnshire. Surnames emmanating from this village are found all over England, and in almost every possible combination. These spellings include Tateshale, Tatershall, and Tattersall, as well as in the past, the exotic Tortoiseshell, although it is believed that this form is now extinct!

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