Cromwell
An English surname usually taken from a place name, later made famous by the family of Oliver Cromwell.
The #4,397 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 38,178 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally explained as coming from an English place name, most likely meaning something like “crooked spring” or “crooked stream” from Old English elements. The first element is usually taken as a word for “crooked” or “bent,” while the second is often connected with a well or water source. Some older writers also treated the name as locational without being certain which exact place gave rise to it.
History
The name became especially famous through the family of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s minister, and later Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector. One 19th-century source notes that the Protector’s family were originally Williams and only adopted Cromwell as a surname by family connection, not because the name was necessarily their ancient hereditary surname. The surname also appears in older English gentry history, and the place-name explanation remains the standard one for the family name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Oliver Cromwell’s family name was originally Williams; the Cromwell surname entered the line through an uncle’s family connection rather than by direct descent.
From the historical record
“shire. CROMWELL. The family of the Pro- tector were of Welsh origin, and bore the name of Williams. Though of ancient descent they abandoned that surname at the instigation of King Henry VIII., and Sir Richard Williams, the Protector's lineal ancestor, being sister's son to Thomas C, the noted vicar-general…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United KingdomNotable people named Cromwell
- Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658)
- Richard Cromwell (1626–1712)
- Thomas Cromwell (1485–1540)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.