Greenwell
A habitational surname from a place called Greenwell, literally “green well” or “green spring.”
The #5,170 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 45,639 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is locational, referring to someone from a place called Greenwell. The name is made up of green and well, meaning a spring, well, or water source, so the literal sense is “green well” or “well by the greenery.” Historical sources place an early Greenwell estate in Walsingham, County Durham, and later bearers took the place-name as their surname.
History
Lower specifically links the name to an old Durham holding called Greenwell in the parish of Walsingham, and notes that the family adopted the place-name from their inheritance. Later surname dictionaries also treat Greenwell as a local name, with references to Durham and Yorkshire. In modern usage it is relatively uncommon, but it has remained established in Britain and in emigrant families abroad.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers sometimes treated Greenwell as a place-name surname even when they could not identify a surviving modern locality by that exact name.
From the historical record
“Woodhouse. GREENWELL. "The wide-spreading and ancient family of Greenwell are des- cended from Gulielmus Presbyter, who in 1183, as ajDpears from 'Boklon Buke,' held the lands of Greenwell in the parish of Wal- singham, co. Durham, and whose son James assumed the name of the place of his in- heritance," B.L.G.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom