Spicknell Family History

From Anglo-Norman French (e)spigurnel *sprigonel ‘sealer of writs’ (in the royal chancery). It is a word of obscure origin and is only certainly recorded in its Medieval Latin forms (e)spigurnellus and sprigonellus (which are attested in English documents from 1193 onwards) and in the related Latin terms for the office itself: espicurnaucia (1279) espicornelia (about 1283) and spigurnalcia (1286).

Members of the Spigurnel family in the late 12th and 13th centuries may have taken their name from having held the office (which was perhaps a hereditary one) though there is no independent confirmation of this. Possibly from Middle English, Old French, and Anglo-Norman French spigurnel(le), Modern English spignel refers to the name of a herb, particularly the umbellifer Meum athamanticum.

Its aromatic root was formerly dried, ground up, and used in medicine as a carminative or stimulant, or as a spice in cookery. It might have been given as a nickname for a herbalist or physician. However, the earliest bearers of the surname were members of a high-ranking family in royal service, one of whom was Edmund le Espycurnel' (1285), where the use of the definite article points strongly to the sense suggested in (i).