Angel
A surname that usually began as a baptismal name, from the word for a heavenly messenger.
The #1,428 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,402 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname most commonly comes from the medieval personal name Angel, used for a boy and taken from the word for an angel or heavenly messenger. The deeper source is Greek angelos, meaning “messenger,” which passed into Latin and then into medieval English and other European languages as a given name. In some cases, the name may also have been influenced by forms in continental European languages, especially in families of German or French background.
History
Bardsley treats Angel as a baptismal surname, “the son of Angel,” and notes that the given name remained in use into later centuries in forms such as Angela and Angelina. The name appears in English records from at least the early modern period. Because the same form can also arise from continental surnames or from the nickname-like use of “angel,” some lines of descent may be mixed.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Lower remarks that the surname Angel could even be jokingly misread as a lawyer’s name unless one connected it with the heavenly term.
From the historical record
“is the dim. suft.] 2 Angel [see Angel in Diet.] ENGELBERT 1 (Ger.) see EngeP, and ENGELBRECHT f H- O.Sax. berht, O.H.Ger. beraht, ' bright,' ' glorious,' &c.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)