Smail
A northern form of Small, likely a nickname surname for a slight or small person.
The #3,900 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 33,939 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally treated as a variant of Small, with the same basic sense of “small” or “slender.” The underlying word goes back to Old Norse and related Germanic forms meaning small or narrow. Some older writers also noted forms like Smale and Smiles as related spellings or dialect variants.
History
The name is especially recorded in northern English and Scots usage, where dialect spellings often shifted vowels and consonants. Historical forms such as Henry le Smale show it in use by the late 13th century. It is also found in place-name contexts, which sometimes complicate the line between a nickname surname and a locational one.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is close enough to Small that some 19th-century lexicographers simply treated it as a regional spelling rather than a separate name.
From the historical record
“2 conf. with SlaymanS q.v. SMAIL "I forms (usually North.) of Small, SMALE J q.v. Henry le Smale, A.D. 1277-8.— Vale Royal Ledger-Bk. SMAITHWAITE (Scand.) Bel. to Smaithwaite (nr. Keswick) ; or Dweller at the Small Clearing [O.N. smd-r + ^ueit\ SMALEMAN = Smallman, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)