The history of the Randles name began with the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name is derived from the baptismal name Randel. In this case the surname Randles was a diminutive of the personal name Rand, a short form of various German names with the first element rand meaning shield or wolf. [1]
Alternatively, the name was derived from the name of an ancestor as in 'the son of Randolph,' from the nickname Randle. As such, the earliest records of the family were as a forename as in Randle de Arclet, Cheshire, temp. 1290. [2]
The surname Randles was first found in the parish of Ladock in Cornwall. "Hay, which was formerly deemed a genteel residence, was successively a seat of the families of Randyll, Tregain, and Bone." [3]
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Randles research. Another 95 words (7 lines of text) covering the years 1436, 1570, 1622, 1581, 1587, 1592 and 1598 are included under the topic Early Randles History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Randles family name include Randall, Rendle, Randal, Rendel, Rendell and others.
Notables of the family at this time include John Randall (1570-1622), English divine, born at Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire who was sent at the early age of eleven to St. Mary Hall, Oxford, where he matriculated on 27 Nov. 1581. He was elected a fellow of Lincoln College on 6 July...
Another 50 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Randles Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
In the United States, the name Randles is the 10,579th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. [4]
Some of the Randles family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 34 words (2 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Randles surname or a spelling variation of the name include : Philip Randall, his wife and their three children, who arrived in Dorchester, MA in 1633; John Randall, who arrived in Virginia in 1635; Phillip and Robert Randall, who settled in Boston Massachusetts in 1639.