Glidewell
An English surname probably formed from a place-name meaning “the well associated with a kite (the bird),” though the exact origin is not entirely certain.
The #9,161 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 86,653 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally treated as English and probably locational. One old explanation connects it with a lost or minor place-name built from a word for a kite or “glede” and the element well, meaning a spring or stream. In that view, the name would originally have meant something like “the well or stream by the kite-haunt.”
History
The surname is uncommon and appears to have remained relatively local in England before later spread to other English-speaking countries. The 20th-century scholar Weekley classed it among surnames in -well and suggested a local origin, but his explanation was tentative rather than definitive.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Weekley grouped Glidewell with names such as Gledhill and Gladstone, all of which he thought might go back to an old word for a kite.
From the historical record
“NAMES IN -WELL 255 Cauldwell * (cold) . Glidewell is also local, from the gleed or glide, i.e. kite, to which we owe also Gledhill, Gleadle, Gledstanes, Gladstone. Others again are perversions, e.g. Caswell and Kidwell take us very far back in history, for they represent the Welsh names Caswallon and Cadwal, the…”
— Surnames