Toole
A surname usually from the Irish Ó Tuathail, meaning a descendant of Tuathal.
The #5,331 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 47,252 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The common Irish source is Ó Tuathail, meaning "descendant of Tuathal." The personal name Tuathal is usually explained from tuath, "people" or "tribe," with a sense of "ruler of the people" or "one belonging to the people." Some older English-language surname books also treated Toole as a shortened or anglicized form of O'Toole.
History
Toole is the usual English spelling of an Irish surname long associated with the Uí Tuathail of Leinster. It spread widely in English records as Irish names were anglicized, and the same root produced several spellings such as O'Toole, Towell, Tohill, and related forms in historical sources. A few older writers proposed unrelated or secondary explanations, but the Irish derivation is the standard one.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century surname books linked Toole and Tooley to very different origins, but most modern references treat Toole as part of the O'Toole family of names.
From the historical record
“Toke (q.v.), with the dim. suff. TOOLE (Celt.) v. O'Toole. TOOLEY (A.-Scand.) the I3th-I4thcent. Toly, Toll, nth-cent. Tolig (also O.Dan.), a pet form of the O.N. Thorleik-r = Thor's SpoRTor Contest [O.N. leik-r, sport, etc.] Mod. Norw. forms of O.N. Thorleik-r are Tolleik, Toilet, Tolli. (Celt.) the Ir.…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)