Hull
Usually a topographic or locational surname meaning “hill,” though in some cases it may point specifically to the city of Hull in Yorkshire.
The #807 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 7,177 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually explained from Old English "hyll," meaning “hill,” with the name originally given to someone who lived on or near a hill. Some early surname writers also thought it could be locational in a narrower sense, especially from Hull in Yorkshire. Because both explanations fit the form well, the name is sometimes treated as a hill-name surname and sometimes as a place-name surname.
History
The name is well established in England and appears in early surname collections as both a simple topographic name and a possible local surname from Hull, Yorkshire. It spread to North America with English migration and remains fairly common in the United States. The short, common word also means that unrelated families may have adopted the same surname independently in different places.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Old surname references explicitly note both meanings at once: “a hill,” but “perhaps specifically from Hull, co. York.”
From the historical record
“Somerset. HULL. O. Eng. A hill; but perhaps specifically from Hull, co. York. HULLS. See Hulse. HULME. Places in cos. Lancaster, Northumberland, and Cheshire. HULSE. A township in Cheshire. IIULTON. "Hulton is in the parish of Dean (co. Lancaster) and it gave name to”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom