This name derives from the Medieval English or Old French "gentil" meaning "courteous" or "well-born" and was originally given as a nickname to one noble in conduct. The surname is first recorded at the beginning of the 13th Century, (see below). In 1273 one, Robert le Gentill or Gentyl appears in "The Hundred Rolls of Wiltshire" and a Jophannes Gentill in the 1379 "Poll Tax Returns Records" of Yorkshire. In the "modern" idiom, the name is spelt Gentle, Gentil(e) or Jentle with the patronymic form Gentles. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Osbert le Gentil, which was dated 1202, in the "Pipe Rolls of Hampshire", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax.