Dowell
A surname with mixed English and Gaelic roots, often linked either to a local place-name or to the Gaelic MacDowell/McDougall line meaning “dark stranger.”
The #2,377 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 20,153 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name has more than one possible origin. In English sources it is sometimes treated as a local surname, probably from a place-name or a phrase meaning something like “at the dowl,” though the exact place is unclear. In Welsh and Gaelic material it is also connected with forms meaning “dark” or with the Gaelic name family MacDowell/McDougall, from elements meaning “dark” plus “stranger” or “foreigner.”
History
The surname appears in England in the medieval and early modern period, including records in London and Gloucestershire. Irish and Scottish surname works also place Dowell among anglicized forms related to MacDougall and similar Gaelic names, so the spelling may have arisen independently in more than one region. Because of that overlap, modern Dowell bearers may have different ancestral origins depending on family line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers disagreed about Dowell’s main origin, which is a good reminder that the same spelling can hide several different family histories.
From the historical record
“sandy, hilly land, used only for pasturing sheep. DOWELL. (Welsh and Gaelic.) DowyU, Welsh, shady, dark. Ynis Dowytt, the shady island. DOYLE. A corruption of Z>' Oily, from Oily, a city in France. DRAKE. (Gaelic.) Drak, a drake ; drac, a route, a way, a footstep ; one who draws or leads, a leader. DRAIN. (Gaelic.)…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names