Morrill
Usually a variant of Morel or Morrell, originally a nickname for someone with dark coloring or a swarthy complexion.
The #4,667 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 40,635 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Morrill is generally treated as a spelling variant of Morel/Morrell. Those names come from Old French morel, a form related to more, meaning “dark” or “black,” and were used as nicknames for a dark-haired or dark-complexioned person. The ending -ill is a later English spelling variation rather than a separate root.
History
In English records, Morrill appears alongside Morrell and Morel as one of several related surname spellings. The name was carried to North America by early English and other British settlers, and it remained relatively uncommon compared with the more usual forms Morrell and Morris. In some cases later family lines fixed the spelling Morrill even when earlier generations used other spellings.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname dictionaries often grouped Morrill with other “dark-complexion” nicknames, showing how often medieval bynames later became hereditary surnames.
From the historical record
“Morel, Morell, Morrall, MorreU, MorrilL— (i) Nick. * the morel/ dark-complexioned. MOBST”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)