Reggie Mantle is one of Archie Comics' five core characters. His given name 'Reginald' and his last name 'Mantle' are both of Norman origin. If we look at the origin of the surname 'Mantle', we can find a surprisingly old and aristocratic history.The name Mantle reached English shores for the first time with the ancestors of the Mantle family as they migrated following the Norman Conquest of 1066. Their name is thought to be a reference to the family's place of residence prior to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, Mantell, near Gamages, Normandy. The name could also be a derivation from the Anglo-Norman French word "mantel", cloak or coat, from the Latin "mantellus". So 'Mantle' is a metonymic occupational name for someone who made cloaks or mantles, over-garments, or it can be a nickname for someone who wore a cloak of a particularly conspicuous design.
The surname has a variety of forms, from Mantle and Mantel to Mantell. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thurstan Mantle, which was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book of Buckinghamshire, during the reign of King William 1, "The Conqueror", 1066 - 1087. Mantle's Green in Amersham, Buckinghamshire commemorates Thurstan Mantle.
Other early recordings include: Robert Mantell, in the Pipe Rolls of Berkshire in 1176; Robert Mantel, in the Hundred Rolls of Buckinghamshire in 1273; and John Mauntel, in the Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire in 1273. Recordings from London Church Registers include the marriage of Ann Mantle and John Tisdall at St. Bartholomew the Less, on April 2nd 1594, and the christening of Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Pett and Susannah Mantle, on March 30th 1685, at St. Olave's, Southwark.
A Coat of Arms granted to a Mantell family in Kent depicts a black cross
engrailed between four black martlets on a silver shield.
