Till
Usually an English surname from a short form of old names like Matilda, though in some cases it may come from a place-name meaning “at the hill.”
The #7,721 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 71,818 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The best-attested explanation is that Till developed as a diminutive or pet form of older personal names, especially Matilda. In that tradition, medieval nicknames such as Till could generate surnames and later longer forms like Tillotson. Some writers also suggested a separate source from Old English elements or a contraction of At-Hill, but that looks like a secondary or occasional explanation rather than the main one.
History
Historical surname writers placed Till among English surnames formed from short personal-name forms, and they linked it with records of medieval bynames. The name also appears in compounds such as Tillotson, which helped preserve the older nickname in surname form. As an independent surname, Till remained relatively uncommon but spread in English-speaking regions, especially through later migration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley specifically explained Tillotson as “son of Tillot,” showing how a tiny nickname could grow into a full surname lineage.
From the historical record
“replaced by a bridge] TILL (Eng.) a descendant of one of the A.-Sax. Till- or Til- names, as Tilla, Tilli, Tila, Tile, Till, Tilbe{oyht, .TilfriS, etc. [f. O.E. til, good, liberal] Thomas fil. Tilla.— , Lane. Assize-Rolls, A.D. 1246.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)