Venable
An English surname most likely derived from the Norman place-name Venables, linked to a family settled in England after the Conquest.
The #3,458 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 29,880 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally explained as a locational name from Venables, a place in Normandy. The place-name was carried into England by a Norman family after 1066, and the surname developed from that association. In English records, the forms Venable and Venables appear as variants of the same name.
History
Bardsley, following Lower, connects the name with a Norman parish in the arrondissement of Louviers and notes an early English bearer holding land under Hugh Lupus in the Norman period. In later English and American records the surname appears mostly as Venables, with Venable as a shortened variant. The name is relatively uncommon in the United States today.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname’s history is tied to the Norman Conquest era, when many French place-names became hereditary English surnames.
From the historical record
“Veasey.— Local ; v. Vesey. Venables, Venable, Ven- nable. — Local, *from Venables, a parish in the arrondissement of Louviers, in Normandy* (Lower). One of this family was tenant under Hugh Lupus, temp. William I, so”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)