Houle
A surname that can point to a place name meaning “the hollow” or to a Norman-French family form, depending on the family line.
The #4,239 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 36,914 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Houle appears to have more than one possible origin. In English contexts, it is often treated as a spelling variant of Hole or Hoyle, referring to someone who lived “at the hole,” meaning a hollow, dip, or sheltered recess in the ground. Lower also points Houle to Howell and Hoole, and Barber notes a Norman-French form, De Houlei, showing that some bearers may come from a French place-name or surname form rather than the English word.
History
Historical dictionaries record Houle as a variant form in several English counties, and it appears in medieval records in forms such as Willehnus Houle. Because the spelling is short and unstable, different families may have arrived at the name independently through different local or Norman-French lines. In North America, the surname is especially familiar in French-Canadian and New England records, where spelling could vary from one clerk to another.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley explicitly cites Houle as one of several spellings showing how older scribes could write the same name very differently from county to county.
From the historical record
“Bedford, Durham, Dorset, Leicester, &c. HOULE. See Howell and Hoole. HOUND. 1. A-Sax. hund, a hunting dog. A Gilbert le Hund is found in H.R. 2. The designation of a parish in Hamp- shire, which includes within its boundaries the far-famed Netley Abbej% HOUNSELL. Possibly a corruption of Hounslow, CO. Middlesex. ^^…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom