Kell
A surname with several possible origins, including a Norman place-name, a nickname from Charles/Karl, or a shortened form of older names with Kell- elements.
The #7,298 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 67,589 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname has more than one proposed source. One line of explanation in older surname books connects it with a Norman place-name, Cailly in Normandy, while another treats it as a shortened or altered form of Charles/Carl/Karl. Some writers also link Kell to older Germanic name forms containing the element Kettle/Asketel, and in some cases it may be a later anglicized form of an Irish surname. Because these explanations do not all point to the same origin, the safest view is that Kell is a surname with several independent or overlapping derivations.
History
In English records the name appears in variant spellings such as Call and Kell, and related forms like Kelson and Kellie are treated as derivatives in older dictionaries. Some 19th-century sources also note that Jewish families adopted Kell as a shortened or altered form of Ezekiel. The surname is not especially common, but it survives in a few distinct lines that may not share a single ancestry.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname writers note that some families changed Ezekiel to Kell, making it one of the shorter surnames with a surprisingly varied background.
From the historical record
“called Kelk. KELL. 1. Formerly written Call, and said by the family to be derived from Cailly in Normandy. See Cailey. In modern times some Christianized Jews have changed their names from Ezekiel to Kell. 2. A nickname of Charles — Carl, Karl, Kell. Hence the derivatives Kelson, and Kellie. KELLAWAY. KELLEWAY. A”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom