Burrell
Usually a variant of Borel/Burel, a medieval nickname for someone plain or rustic, though some later bearers may reflect place-name influence.
The #1,458 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,600 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Burrell is commonly treated as a variant of Borel or Burel, a medieval nickname from Anglo-Norman French and Old French. In this tradition, the word could mean “plain,” “rustic,” or “unpolished,” and was applied to a person’s manner or social standing rather than to a place. Some 19th-century surname writers also connected forms like Burrell with the colour of cloth or dress in certain cases, but the nickname explanation is the main one.
History
Lower explicitly glossed Burrell as meaning “plain, rude, unpolished,” linking it with medieval terms such as borel-clerks and borel-folks. Barber likewise treats Burrell and Burrill as forms of Burrell, and notes either a place-name connection in some cases or a French Borel source. The surname appears in England in medieval and later records in several spellings, reflecting the usual instability of surname forms before standardization.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Medieval writers used borel- words for ordinary lay people, so the surname can carry the sense of being “common” or “unrefined” in a historical, not insulting, way.
From the historical record
“tion. BURRELL. Plain, rude, unpolished. ' Borel-clerks,' lay clerks; ' borel-folks,' lay- men. The Franklin m Chaucer says in his prologue — " But, sires, because I am a hovel man, At my beginning first I you heseche Have me excused of my rude speche. 1 lerncd never rhetoriUe certain ;”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom