Buckle Facts and Figures #FamilyHistory

As I mentioned the other day, I'm the end of the line for my branch of The Buckles. But there are still quite a few of us dotted around the country.

​In 2011 there were 5653 Buckles resident in England and Wales.

​Buckle was ranked 1401st in the list of most used surnames.
Smith was ranked first with 652563 individuals recorded in the 2011 census with that surname.
More fun with surname data at “Surnames of England and Wales”.

​In 1939 there were 4780 Buckles in Britain.

On the outbreak of WW2 when the 1939 Register was drawn up, there were 4780 Buckles resident in the British Isles of which 4718 lived in England.
There were 1016 Buckles living in Yorkshire in 1939.
And so far I’ve found 30 of my Buckle ancestors who were alive in 1939 but I may yet track down some more.

​In 1891 there were 901 Buckle families living in Yorkshire.

This was about 26% of all the recorded Buckles' in the UK. Yorkshire had the highest population of Buckle families in 1891.
Source Ancestry.co.uk

​Employment in 1881.

In 1881 the most common Buckle occupation in the UK was Agricultural Labourer. 9% of Buckles' were Agricultural Labourers. A less common occupation for the Buckle family was Blacksmith.

• Agricultural Labourer 9%
• Labourer 3%
• Farmer 3%
• Blacksmith 1%

Source Ancestry.co.uk

​Meaning of the Buckle surname.

The surname Buckle is of early medieval English origin and is an occupational name for a maker and or seller of buckles.
The name derives from the Middle English word “bokel”, buckle, from the Old French “bocle”, from the Latin “buccula”, the cheek strap of a helmet, a diminutive of “bucca”, cheek.
In some cases the modern surname may derive from a metonymic occupational name for a shield-bearer or maker of shields, from the Middle High German “buckel”, shield.
The surname development has included Peter le Bucler (1203, Yorkshire) and William Bokeler (1317, Kent), while the modern surname can be found as Buckler, Buckel, Buckell and Buckles.
The first recorded spelling of the surname is thought to be that of Anschetil Buclar, which was dated 1148, in the “Winton Book”, Hampshire, during the reign of King Stephen 1135 – 1154.
Source The Internet Surname Database

​FAMOUS BUCKLES

​My Google and Bing searches haven’t come up with any famous Buckles but good old Wikipedia can offer a few.

• Andrew Buckle (born 1982), Australian golfer
• Baldrick Buckle (born 1972), British artist
• Bobby Buckle (1869–1959), English footballer
• Catherine Buckle, Zimbabwean writer
• Charles G. Palmer-Buckle (born 1950) is a Ghanaian Catholic archbishop
• Claude Buckle (1905–1973), English painter
• Claude Buckle (admiral) (1803–1894), English naval officer
• Desmond Buckle (1910–1964), Ghanaian political activist
• Francis Buckle (1766–1832), English jockey
• George Earle Buckle (1854–1935), English editor and biographer
• Harry Buckle (1882–?), Irish footballer
• Henry Thomas Buckle (1821–1862), English historian
• John Buckle (1867–1925), British trade unionist and politician
• Paul Buckle (born 1970), English footballer
• Richard Buckle (1916-2001), British ballet critic
• Robert Buckle (1802-1893), English clergyman
• Ted Buckle (1924–1990), English footballer
• Terry Buckle (born 1940), Canadian archbishop
• Walter Clutterbuck Buckle (1886–1955), Canadian politician

• Richard Buckle (1959-), Radio presenter

And if you would like to know more about Norman Buckle check out this page here.

Thanks for reading my blog. Do leave a comment if you know any more interesting facts or figures about The Buckles. Especially if you're a Buckle yourself.