Colwell
Usually a habitational surname, most often explained as a shortened or altered form of Colville rather than literally “cold well.”
The #3,518 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 30,448 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname is generally treated as a locational name. In the sources, it is explained as a corruption of Colville, a name tied to places in Normandy and adopted into England as a place-based byname. Some writers also connect it with a Northumberland place called Colwell, but the Colville derivation is the one most explicitly preferred in the older dictionaries.
History
The name appears in medieval records in several spellings, including Colville, Colvile, Colwill, and Colwell. English surname dictionaries of the 19th and early 20th centuries often grouped it with other Norman locational surnames that were simplified over time. In Ireland, Matheson records Colwell as a surname found in Irish contexts as well, though that does not establish a separate Irish origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname writers noted that Colwell can be so close in form to Colwill and Colville that the same family line may appear under more than one spelling in records.
From the historical record
“aud at the making of Domesd. See Coffin. COLWELL. A corruption of Colville. H.R. COLYER. See Collier. COISIBE. COi\IBES. From A-Sax. co7nb, Celt, ovm, a hollow in a hill, a valley. In medieval writings, At-Comb, At-Cumb, &c. There are places called Comb or Combe in Sussex, Devon, Somei'set, kc. — Combs in Suffolk —…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom