Bedwell
An English surname that most likely began as a place-name surname, especially from the Bedfordshire hamlet of Bedwell.
The #7,762 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 72,204 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Most historical sources treat Bedwell as a locational surname, from the hamlet of Bedwell in Bedfordshire. The place-name is usually taken to mean something like “Beda’s spring” or “Beda’s stream,” combining the Old English personal name Beda with wella, meaning a spring or stream. Older writers also speculated about a more figurative “battle-spring” or similar sense, but the place-name explanation is the safer and more common one.
History
The surname appears in English records as a local byname for people who came from Bedwell or another similarly named place. In later centuries it spread beyond its original county through ordinary migration within England and, eventually, to North America and elsewhere. The name is uncommon but well established in English-language records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers sometimes linked Bedwell to Old English words for war or battle, but modern onomastic work usually prefers a place-name origin.
From the historical record
“BEDINGTON. A parish in Surrey. BEDWELL. A hamlet, co. Bedford. De Bedewell, H.R. BEDWIN. Two parishes, in Wilts. Bedewiue. H.R. BEE. Probably allusive to the industry of the original bearer, or the sign of his shop. g^BEE, as a termination, is a corruption of ' liy.' Examples : Holmbee, Batters- bee, Bradbee, Boltbee.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom