Crandell
A surname of place-name origin, probably meaning “dwelling by the round or wooded valley.”
The #7,983 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 74,558 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is explained in older surname dictionaries as a local or topographic name built from Welsh elements meaning “round” or “wood” plus “dale/valley.” On that reading, Crandell points to someone from, or living near, a wooded or rounded valley. The same source notes an Irish form, Crandal, with a similar sense of “woody vale.”
History
The name appears in English-language surname collections as a minority locational surname rather than a common occupational or patronymic one. Modern bearers are especially found in the United States, where the spelling Crandell has been preserved alongside shorter or slightly altered forms such as Crandall.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century surname dictionary glossed Crandell quite poetically as “the round or woody vale.”
From the historical record
“CRAMER. (German.) From Jcramer, a retail dealer. CRANDELL. (Welsh.) LocaL From kren, round, or cran, wood ; and dal, or dol, a vale — the round or woody vale. Crandal, in Irish, signifies the woody vale. CRANSTON or CRANSTOUK Local. The town of Grans, a Danish leader who invaded England ; a parish in Edin-…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names