Rothwell
A habitational surname from English place-names meaning either “red spring” or “red well.”
The #7,279 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 67,426 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Rothwell is a locational surname taken from places named Rothwell in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Northamptonshire. The name is usually explained from early Germanic words for “red” plus “well” or “spring,” so the literal sense is either “red spring” or “red well”; some older writers also proposed a related “red field” interpretation. The historical forms cited in medieval records, such as Domesday spellings like Rodo- or Rodewelle, support a very old English place-name origin.
History
The surname was used by people who had moved from one of the several English places called Rothwell. Medieval spellings show the place-name in Yorkshire and elsewhere long before surnames were fixed. Later bearers spread into London and other parts of Britain, and the name also appears in Ireland through migration and record-keeping.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
There is a well-known spring at Rothwell in Northamptonshire, which fits the name’s traditional “well/spring” explanation.
From the historical record
“Appendix of Foreign Names. ROTHWELL (Scand.) Bel. to Rothwell = I the Red Spring [O.N. rau)p-r (= Ger. roth), red + uell, a spring, well] 2 the Red Field [O.N. rau^r, red -|- aoW-r, a field] The Yorks Rothwell was Rodouuelle and Rodeuuelle in Domesday-Book. There”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)