meaning of Towle
Can you help?
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Just a guess, coming from an English Etymology book ...from Middle English, from Old French with a Germanic root that means "to wash" ...yes, it's also where we get the word "towel" ...but this is only an educated guess ...
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[...TOULSON (Eng.) Patronym of TOWLE, from the Middle English given name "Toll", Old English "Toll", or Old Norse "Toli". TOWLE is mostly from Nottinghamshire....]

[...TUATHAL [tool] comes from tuatha, territories--meaning one possessed of "large landed property;" it is the root of the sirnames Toole, O'Toole, Tootal, Tolan, etc....]

I've checked the www.behindthename.com database and those that are closest, were Tolly and Toal. Tolly is a pet form of Bartholomew and Toal was an anglicized form of Tuathal. I guess Tuathal/Toal are not related to the given name Toll. Toll is thus probably from Bartholomew.
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According to the Oxford Dictionary of Surnames (1997), Towle is indeed from Toll:

either from Old English "toll"
or from Old Norse: pet form of Thorleifr (the god Thor + life) or Thorleikr Thor + ?)

The dictionary also mentions a dialectical word "toll" for a clump of trees.

Andy ;—)
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