Pool
A topographic surname for someone who lived by a pool, pond, or lake.
The #2,669 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 22,862 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Pool is a habitational or topographic surname from Middle English pool and Old English p\u0101l, meaning a pool, pond, or small lake. It originally identified someone who lived beside such a body of water. Related forms in older sources include Poole and, in some cases, names with the same root found in Cornish and other British place-names.
History
The name appears in medieval English records and has long been treated as a straightforward local surname. It is closely related to Poole, a much more common spelling, and is also comparable to Cornish surnames built on the element pol, meaning 'pool.' In some cases, later spelling simplification may have produced Pool from Poole.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same water-word appears in many British place-names, which is why surnames from it can arise independently in different regions.
From the historical record
“Subsidy-Roll (Soms.), A.D. 1327. POOL \ (Eng.) Dweller by a Pool or Lake POOLE J "'" " •' ^^ ■'" Cp. Pole. [M.E. pool{e,pol()i, O.E.piiq POOLEY (Eng.) Dweller at i the Pool Island or Waterside [O.E. pdl +' i(e)gi”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)