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Origin / History of the Shergold Name

This is an English medieval surname, and can be found recorded as: Shergill; Shergoll; Shergold; and Shirgold.  The famous Victorian etymologist Canon Charles Bardsley, writing in 1880, considered that it originated in the county of Wiltshire, and we have no reason to challenge this view.  Research indicates that the name is probably Anglo-Saxon from the 8^th Century, and a development of ‘scir-geld’, with ‘scir’ meaning bright, and ‘geld’, meaning gold.  If this is so, then the name was baptismal, and typical of English or Saxon names before the Norman Conquest of 1066.  At this time hereditary surnames did not exist, and compounds with two or more elements were often created.  However there is also a possibility that the name relates to a 'lost' medieval village perhaps called Scirgill, meaning pleasant valley.  The first recorded spelling of the family name may be that of William Shergall, 1552, in the register of Broad Chalke, Wiltshire.  Other early examples of the surname recordings which have been found in surviving church recordings include: Edward Shergoll of Acton in the city of London, 1573; Elizabeth Shergould, christened at St Margaret's, Westminster, 1599; Robert Shergill who married Eliza Compton at St James, Dukes Place, Westminster, 1690; and George Shergold, who married Mary Simmons at St Mary Magdalene, London, 1713.  

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