Moll
Usually a nickname surname from Moll, a pet form of Mary or Matilda, though in some cases it may reflect an old Anglo-Saxon male name.
The #4,938 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 43,296 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Moll most often comes from the medieval nickname Moll, a familiar short form of Mary or, in some traditions, Matilda. Some early English sources also connect it with an Old English male personal name, Moll, so the surname can have more than one origin. In Germanic and Hebrew naming traditions, the underlying given names were widely used in pet forms and diminutives, which then became hereditary surnames.
History
Medieval and early modern records show Moll as a nickname-based surname, especially in England, where women’s forenames often produced hereditary surnames through their descendants. Bardsley and related works also note related forms such as Malleson, Mally, and Mallinson, showing how the same nickname family generated multiple surnames. Harrison further suggests that in some cases Moll may preserve the older Anglo-Saxon personal name Moll, so not every bearer necessarily descends from Mary or Matilda.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century surname writer remarked that in some dialect areas “Moll” was still used as a living nickname form, which helped surnames like Malleson and Mollison take shape.
From the historical record
“molina, a mill] Adam de Molyneus. — Testa de Nevill. MOLL (A.-Heb. and Teut.) a dim. of Maty; also (Mall) oi Matilda : v. Malkin. (Eng.) an A.-Sax. male name borne e.g. by an eighth-century Northumbrian king— Moll ofsleh [killed] Oswine.— A.-Sax. Chron., A.D. 761. MOLLER, an Anglicized form of the Dan.- Norvir.…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)