Raffle Family History

Perhaps either from a Middle English form of an unrecorded Old English personal name *Ræfweald (uncertain element + ‘power(ful)’) or from an Old French form of the equivalent Continental Germanic personal name Rafald, although its use among Normans is not on record. This fits the Lancs name Ravald well, but some of the following post-medieval examples in N England may alternatively belong with (3) and others in all parts could belong with (2).

Some post-medieval spellings have been influenced by the name of the archangel Raphael and others by place-names in -field. Perhaps from a Middle English personal name *Raf(f)el, which might have been a pet form of Rafe (Ralph), but there is as yet no medieval evidence for it.

Derivation from Raphael (the name of the archangel) is improbable as it seems to have been used in England only after the Reformation. Surnames from this source may sometimes have attracted an excrescent -d.

Reduced form of Raffles (1).