Searle
An old surname probably from a Norman personal name, later also used in forms meaning “the son of Serlo.”
The #7,145 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 65,971 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Searle is generally explained as coming from Serlo, a Norman personal name. In older records it appears in several close forms, including Searle, Serle, Searles, and related surnames such as Sarrall and Serrell. The underlying personal name is usually treated as the source, rather than a directly descriptive word.
History
This name is recorded in English medieval and early modern sources in a range of spellings. It belongs to a cluster of surnames that dictionary writers connected with the Norman name Serlo. The form survived in England and later spread to other English-speaking countries, including the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname dictionaries often grouped Searle with several other surnames that look quite different today, because they all were thought to descend from the same Norman personal name.
From the historical record
“SEARE. SEARES. See Sears. SEARLE. SEARLES. Probably from Serlo, a Norman personal name, the com- mon origin of Sari, Sard, Sarrell, Serrell, &c. SEARS. 1. See Sayer. 2. Serez, a. place in the arrondissement of Evreux, in Normandy. 3. " The name — which has been written Sare, Sayer, Sayers — first oc- curs in the…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom