Treadwell
An English surname meaning someone who lived by a well or spring beside a path or road.
The #5,897 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 52,768 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Most evidence points to an English locational surname built from dialectal tread, meaning a path, track, or road, plus well, from Old English wiell(a), a spring or well. In this sense, Treadwell would originally describe someone living by a well beside a roadway or track. Some older writers also explained it more loosely as a "step-well" or related local place-name, but the path-and-well interpretation is the clearest and best supported.
History
The name is recorded in English historical sources in several spellings, including Treadwell and Tredwell. Later surname studies note concentrations in places such as Oxfordshire and Kent, suggesting a fairly local English spread. The form has also been treated as a variant of Tretwell in some family-name scholarship.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Surname scholars have sometimes grouped Treadwell with other English names ending in -well that refer to a physical feature near a settlement, rather than to a personal quality.
From the historical record
“strength -(- wig, war (wiga, warrior] TREADWELL (Eng.) Dweller at a Spring or Well by a Path or Road [Dial. E. tread, a path, track, way ; f. O.E. tredan, to tread -I- E. well, O.E. w{i)ell(a, a spring] TREANOR = Trainor, q.v. TREBBLE 1 (Eng.)i assim. forms of Trennble, TREBLE J Trimble, Trumble, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)