Daniels
A patronymic surname meaning “son of Daniel.”
The #187 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 2,106 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Daniels comes from the personal name Daniel, with the final -s used as a patronymic marker meaning “son of.” The given name Daniel is from Hebrew and is usually understood as “God is my judge” or “judgment of God.” In English and other European naming traditions, Daniels developed as a family name from an ancestor called Daniel.
History
The surname is recorded as a common type of English baptismal surname, and 19th-century sources note Daniel as the parent form of Daniels, Dann, and related variants. It also appears in Jewish, English, and other European contexts wherever the personal name Daniel was used as a hereditary surname. In the United States, Daniels became especially widespread through English, Irish, and African American family lines, as well as later immigration and surname adoption.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century dictionary explicitly glosses Daniels as “the son of Daniel.”
From the historical record
“Daniels, Dann, &c. DANIELS. See Daniel. DANN. See Daniel. DANSAYS. French Protestant refugees who settled at Rye, co. Sussex, in 1685, im- mediately after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. HoUoway's Rye, 582. DANSEY. William Dauntesey lield lauds in Wiltshire temp. Henry III., and his son Richard D. held lands…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom