Friel
An Irish surname most likely linked to a form of O'Freel, with roots in an older Gaelic family name.
The #7,113 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 65,649 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Friel is generally treated as an Irish name, and historical surname dictionaries often connect it with the older Gaelic form O'Freel or a related Gaelic family name. The exact older personal-name source is not certain from the excerpts alone, but the name is clearly part of a cluster of Irish surnames with variants such as Freel, Freal, and Frehill. In practice, Friel is usually understood as an anglicized Irish surname rather than a descriptive English word-name.
History
The name is especially associated with Ireland and is well attested in Irish surname reference works. It appears in 19th- and early-20th-century Irish indexing sources as a recognized Irish surname, and later became established in diaspora communities, especially in the United States. Modern bearers are concentrated in Irish-descended families, with the spelling Friel now the standard form.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same historical sources that list Friel also group it with a small family of close spelling variants, showing how fluid Irish surname spellings could be in records.
From the historical record
“0 p|t5il, O'Freel, Freel, Friel; Freal, Frehill, etc. C pjijile, Freely, Freehily, Fre- hilly.”
— Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish names and surnames