Peel
A surname for someone who lived by or in a fortified house, especially a northern English or Scottish peel or peel-house.
The #5,247 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 46,449 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname comes from a place-name or dwelling-name meaning a fortified house, tower, or small castle. The word is traced through Anglo-French and Old French forms such as pel/peill to Latin palus, meaning a stake, with some influence also suggested from Latin pila, "pillar." In Middle English, a peel or peel-house was a defensive residence, especially in the north of England and along the border with Scotland.
History
The name is strongly associated with northern English border country, where many houses were called "the peel" or "peel-house." Early writers explicitly connect the surname to residence at such a fortified place, and Bardsley notes that well-known local families and the Cumberland hunting figure John Peel fit this pattern. The surname has also remained familiar in Britain through notable bearers such as Sir Robert Peel.
Origin
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Fun fact
"John Peel" was the name of a famous Cumbrian huntsman and song subject, and his surname is usually explained as coming from a local peel-house.
From the historical record
“PEEL I (A.-Fr.-Lat.) i Dweller at a Forti- PEELE J fied Residence or Small Castle [Mig. pel, peill, pe(e)le; O.Fr. pel, Lat. pal-US, a stake. But O.E. pil, Lat. pila, a pillar, seems iiot to have been without in- ' fluence]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)