Stiles

This name is one of those surnames which describe the nature or situation of the original bearer's residence (Lower's English Surnames, p.84), in this case designating a certain person living near a stile. A stile is a set of steps for crossing over a fence or wall. They are generally found in rural areas and allow people to enter and leave fields but restrain animals . Most are made of wood.

The word stile is a modernized from of "stighle", the old Saxon word; and the Stiles family is of Anglo-Saxon origin, tracing back to that peninsula, now known as Jetland, which divids the North Sea, or German Ocean, from the Baltic Sea. The early seats of the family seem to have been in the southeastern corner of England in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Northampton.