Rule
A surname that may come either from a place-name or from the old personal name Raoul/Ruel.
The #5,573 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 49,510 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This name is usually treated as either locational or as a surname taken from a medieval personal name. One line of explanation connects it with the Scottish and English place-name Rule, which older writers analyzed as containing an element meaning "hedge-row" or perhaps a local topographic term plus "well/spring." Another common explanation is that it comes from the Anglo-Norman/French personal name Raoul or Ruel, ultimately related to Ralph. The evidence in the older dictionaries leans toward the personal-name source in some cases, but the place-name origin is also well established.
History
Older Scottish antiquarians sometimes linked the surname to St. Regulus, but later etymologists generally treated that as a traditional explanation rather than a secure one. The name is recorded in medieval forms such as Rewel, Rewell, Rewyl, Ruwel, and Ruwell, showing how unstable the spelling was. It appears in both English and Scottish contexts, and modern bearers may descend from either a place-based or personal-name origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century source specifically notes that the surname Rule may have nothing to do with the modern English word "rule" at all, despite the tempting spelling.
From the historical record
“Cp. Rudge. RULE (Eng.) Bel. to Rule (Staffs), 13th cent. Rewel(e, Rewell, Rewyl, Ruwel, 12th cent. Ruwell [the second element is app. M.E. well(e, etc., O.E. wielUfl, a spring, well ; the first element seems more likely to be M.E. rew(e, O.E. r(kw, a hedgerow, than M.E. row{e, rugh, O.E. nih, rough] (A.-Fr.-Teut.)…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)