Tull
A surname with several possible origins, most often treated as a local name or a shortened form related to older French and English place- and personal-names.
The #5,851 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 52,294 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Tull has been explained in more than one way. Some 19th-century sources connect it with an old French form of the Latin names Tullus or Tullius; others treat it as a shortened or altered form of a local name, especially from Devon or Cornish place-names containing toll/tol meaning a hole, gap, or cleft. A further possibility is that some bearers descend from Norman or French forms such as Toul or Tullet, with later English spelling variation.
History
The name appears in medieval and post-medieval English records in several spellings, and later surname dictionaries treated it as a variant or clipped form of related names such as Tull, Tullett, Towle, or Tully. In local-name explanations, it is linked especially with western English place-names, while other scholarship points to Norman/French importation. Because the evidence points in different directions, the surname is best treated as having multiple possible origins rather than a single fixed source.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One source notes French surname forms such as Tullat, Tullot, and Tullon, showing how widely the name could vary in spelling in old records.
From the historical record
“'soldier', "knight', 'personage'. TULL (A.-Fr.-Lat.) a French form of the Lat. Tiill-us, Tulli-us [orig. obscure] TULLETT = Tull (q.v.)-|-the Fr. dim. suff. -et. In addition to Tullet, we find in France the forms Tullat, Tullot, and Tullon. TULLEY, V. Tully. TULLIS, Tully's (Son) : v. Tully. TULLOCH 1 (Celt.) Bel.…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)