Comments: HOW WINTLE BECAME WINKLE.

"Winkel" in Bavarian place names is "corner" used somewhat like the German "Eck"--e.g., "Reit am Winkel" or "Eckstein."

Posted by Doc Rock at June 29, 2008 09:00 PM

In dutch, a Winkle is a store.

Posted by Chris Brandsma at June 29, 2008 09:27 PM

The author may already have unearthed this information, but here it is anyway:
WINTLE: Found in Gloucester and its neighbourhood and probably possess an ancestor in Christopher Windle who was incumbent of the parish of Side in 1592. The Wintles were influential Gloucester citizens in the 18th century; at the same time there was a family in Long Hope. This surname may hail originally form the north, Windle being the name of a Lancashire town and Windhill of a district in the West Riding.
http://www.grahamthomas.com/glocnames.html
And winkel is shop in Afrikaans, too.

Posted by Eliza at June 30, 2008 01:48 AM

Leslie Dunkling, who writes on names (as readers of this blog will probably already know) discovered while researching his own surname that it had been similarly "hypercorrected" by a 19th century cleric from Dunklin.

Posted by Terry Collmann at July 2, 2008 02:03 PM

And what relation is Rip Van?

Posted by Carrie K at July 2, 2008 11:45 PM