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Surname Etymology and Meaning of HOYLE

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

1. English (Yorkshire and Lancashire): topographic name for someone who lived by a depression or low-lying spot, from Old English holh ‘hole’, ‘hollow’, ‘depression’ (see Hole).
2. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Chomhghaill, a patronymic from a personal name meaning ‘devotee of (Saint) Comhghal’ (see McCool). Woulfe, however, traces Hoyle (as well as MacIlhoyle and McElhill) to Mac Giolla Choille ‘son of the lad of the wood’, which has sometimes been translated as Woods.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)