Recorded in several spellings including Tackley, Tackly, Tuckley, Tukely, and occasionally Thackley, this is an English surname. It is locational and usually originates from the small village of Tackley, near Woodstock, in the county of Oxfordshire, although it is also possible that some nameholders may derive their surname from the village of Thackley, near Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The meaning of the village names and hence the later surname is probably the "ewes field" from the pre 7th century Olde Danish "tacca" and the Olde English "leah", a fenced enclosure suitable for agriculture. The Oxford village is first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as "Tachelie" and the Yorkshire village in the 12th century as "Taccslea". Locational surnames are usually "from" names, or names given to people after they left their original homesteads. For a considerable period the epi-centre of this surname seems to have been the village of Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. The first recording in the surviving church registers of the period may be that of Joanne Tackley. She was christened at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire on December 24th 1552, whilst Charles Tuckley married Ann Askew at the church of St Peter-le-Poer, in the city of London, on December 4th 1701. This was during the reign of William of Orange (1689 - 1702).

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