Name Variants - Tackley, Tookey and Tuckey

Supplied by Brian Tuckley and John Tuckley

Are Tackley ,Tookey and or Tuckey variants of the name Tuckley?

Is Tackley a variant on the surname Tuckley?

Contary to what has been written elsewhere on the internet about the origins of the surname Tuckley no evidence has been found that confirms any links with the names Tackley,Tackly or even Thackley.

The villages of Tackley in Oxfordshire and Thackley in the West Riding of Yorkshire do not appear to have any connection with the name Tuckley.

A short history of the village of Tackley in Oxfordshire was published by the village local history group and it states that the name means either " clearing for young sheep" (teg or tag) or possibly " Tacca's wood or clearing" ie. belonging to someone with the name Tacca. There is a second publication by the local history group that covers "Tackley (the village) Wills 1463 to 1707" but there are no references in that period to the name Tackley or Tuckley.

The village of Tackley is referred to in the Domesday book 1086 and a Romano-British settlement probably existed in tthe village of Tackley because a quantity of roman coins and pottery were found in the area.

There are references to the surname Tuckley and Tuckley Park in Oxfordshire in the 1780's which appear in newspapers in the British Library. It would seem however that these references have been misquoted and should refer to the name Tackley.

A recent DNA analysis of a male with the surname Tackley has shown very different genes to those of the Willenhall Tuckley's. More studies of the DNA for the surname Tackley would be required to be certtian that there is no connection between the names.

The names Tuckley and Tackley sound phonetically very different and consequently I believe that there is no connection and that they are not variants of one or the other.

Tookey and Tuckey

Contrary to what has been written elsewhere on the internet about the possible origin of the Tuckley surname no evidence has been found to confirm any links.

In the Lichfield Record Office there a 30 Tuckley Wills and Documents  of which 17 are Administrations. In addition there are 27 Tuckey and 12 Tookey documents .

Some references are as follows :

1582         John Tucklye              Bickenhill
1586         John Tuckley               Coleshill
1608         Humphrey Tuckley       Bickenhill
1633         George  Tuckley           Willoughby
1640        Thomas Tuckey             Coleshill
1665         John Tuckey                Bickenhill
1673         John Tuckey                 Wolvey           
1704         Thos.John Tuckey        Willoughby

Investigation of these documents and the Parish Records suggests that on  occasions when the name "Tuckley" was recorded as "Tuckey" or "Tookey" then the correct spelling was used at later event or the error was discovered and the surname was corrected  back to "Tuckley".

For example : the son of John and Mary Tuckley was baptised  as John Tookey on 25th Nov. 1810 at St Martins Tipton. His death was recorded as John Tuckley in 1890 at St Mark's Church Ocker Hill Tipton aged 80.

In some cases names remained mis-spelt and were never corrected. In the Midlands area Tookey's and Tuckey's are usually only found in areas where the Tuckley name existed. There are now areas where only Tuckey's and Tookey's exist and there are no Tuckley's present.

A DNA comparison with the Willenhall Tuckley genes and from  Tuckey's  or Tookey's  from the Midlands would be helpful to clarify whether they are name variants of Tuckley.