Angle
A surname from living “at the angle” or corner of a road, field, or settlement.
The #6,035 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 54,232 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This name is generally understood as a topographic surname for someone who lived at or near an angle, nook, or corner. The word goes back through Middle English and Old French to Latin angulus, meaning “corner” or “angle.” Historical spellings and related forms such as Atte Nangle and In Angulo support this place-based sense.
History
Nineteenth-century surname writers treated Angle as a local name, and some linked it with forms like Atte Angle and the Latin-style In Angulo. The name appears in English records as a descriptive topographic byname rather than as a given-name derivative. Some later family lines, especially in Ireland, may connect with place-names such as Angle or Nangle in Welsh Marches or Irish contexts, though the surname is not always from the same source in every branch.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley noted that “Angle” was probably the source of many English Angells as well as Angels, because the given name Angel was uncommon in medieval England.
From the historical record
“of Hamborough. ANGLE. See Nannie. ANKITTEL. In Ireland, and written temp. Richard II., Angetale, is doubtless the same as tlie English Anchitel. ANNE.* The name is local. The pedi- gree begins with Sir William de Anne, Constable of the castle of TickJiill, co. York, temp. Edward II. Shirley's Noble and Gentle Men.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom