Crowell
A mostly English habitational surname meaning “from Crowell,” the name of a place in Oxfordshire.
The #2,071 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 17,676 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Crowell is generally explained as a habitational surname, taken from the place-name Crowell in Oxfordshire. The place-name is usually linked to Old English elements meaning “crow” plus “spring” or “stream,” though the precise early form is not fully settled in the excerpts. In surname use, it simply meant someone who came from that place.
History
19th-century surname writers treat Crowell as a local or place-name surname, and Bardsley specifically points to Crowell in Oxfordshire. The name is documented in medieval records in forms such as de Crowell, showing early locative use. It later spread beyond England, with bearers appearing in American directories and census records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same surname can show up in early records with the prefix de, a common medieval way of marking someone as “from” a place.
From the historical record
“from which the family may have come. CROWELL. Local. From a town in England by that name. CUDNEY. (Br.) From Cud or Coit, a wood, and ey, water — the wood near the water. CUDWORTH. From Cud or Coit, a wood, and worth, a place, a dwelling — the farm or dwelling in the wood. CULLEN. Local. From the town of Cullen, in…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names