Echols
A surname usually understood as a variant of Eccles, meaning someone from or near a church or ecclesiastical place.
The #2,501 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 21,358 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Echols is generally treated as an Americanized spelling variant of Eccles, an English surname from Old English and later medieval forms meaning "church" or "religious house." The ultimate source is the Old English word "ecles" and related forms influenced by Latin "ecclesia," "church." As a surname, it would originally have identified someone who lived by a church or came from a place called Eccles.
History
The surname is most common in the United States, where several English surnames took on altered spellings in records and local usage. Echols is especially found in the American South and is often linked genealogically to families whose earlier forms included Eccles, Echles, or similar spellings. Because spelling was historically fluid, the same family line could appear under several variants over time.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Echols is one of several surname spellings that likely changed because clerks wrote names the way they sounded rather than according to a fixed family standard.