Angell
Usually a surname from the word “angel,” though some bearers may descend from an older personal name or from a house sign.
The #4,593 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 39,967 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is most often explained from Middle English "angel," ultimately from Latin "angelus" via Old French, meaning a heavenly messenger. Some early writers also thought it could be a survival of an older personal name, such as Anegold or a related form, which later generated surnames with endings like -son. In a few cases it may also have come from a house or sign name, since "the Angel" was common as an inn or shop sign.
History
Historical sources show the name in medieval England, and by the 16th and 17th centuries it was established in parish and university records. Nineteenth-century surname writers disagreed a little about whether the main source was the religious word "angel" or an older personal name, but the ordinary explanation has been a derivation from the word itself. The spelling Angell has remained common in English-speaking countries, especially Britain and later North America.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In old English towns, “The Angel” was a very common inn sign, so some surnames may have come from living or working near such a house.
From the historical record
“ANGELL. A common imi sign. More I^robably, liowevcr, from Anegole or Angold, a personal name, as we find it occasionally with the suffix son. Sometimes there may be a direct allusion to the celestial hierarchy, as in the cognate foreign surnames Angelo, Angellis. Angellico. AXGELSOX. The son of Anegold, a pei"sonal…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom