This English (Norman) nickname of DOUBLE was originally derived from the Old French 'doubel' meaning a twin. The name was rendered in medieval documents in the Latin form 'duplus'. It has various spellings which include DOUBELL, DOUBBLE, DOBELMAN and the German variant is TOBEL. Many factors contributed to the establishment of a surname system. For generations after the Norman Conquest of 1066 a very few dynasts and magnates passed on hereditary surnames, but most of the population, with a wide choice of first-names out of Celtic, Old English, Norman and Latin, avoided ambiguity without the need for a second name. As society became more stabilized, there was property to leave in wills, the towns and villages grew and the labels that had served to distinguish a handful of folk in a friendly village were not adequate for a teeming slum where perhaps most of the householders were engaged in the same monotonous trade, so not even their occupations could distinguish them, and some first names were gaining a tiresome popularity, especially Thomas after 1170. The hereditary principle in surnames gained currency first in the South, and the poorer folk were slower to apply it. By the 14th century however, most of the population had acquired a second name. Early records of this name mention Hamo DUBEL who was recorded in County Norfolk in l273 and William DUBEL was mentioned in the same year. James DOBELL of Bungeye was the rector of Markshall, County Norfolk in the year l300. A later instance of the name include William DOUBLE and Sarah DAINTON who were married at St. Georges Hanover Square, London, in l809. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God. However much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. |
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