HOWEL
Howel is a surname principally associated with Wales. It descends from the medieval Welsh personal name Hywel, which the Welsh language translates as “eminent” or “prominent.” The name was common enough that the formation of a family name was a natural evolution of the patronymic custom of the era, with the surname indicating the descendants of a particular Hywel.
Historical records cite several early bearers of the name in its early surname form. In 1183 a William Hoel is recorded in Wiltshire, while a John Howel appears in Cambridgeshire in 1313 and Hyllar Howell is noted in Somerset in 1327. Earlier mentions, such as Hoelus de Charlion in the 1184 Glamorgan ipe Rolls and Howell filius Ade Walensis in the 1221 Shropshire Assizes, demonstrate the spread of the name across the Welsh Marches during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The name also appears in the Anglo‑Saxon Chronicles, where Huwal West Wala cyning, king of the West Welsh, is documented in 926, and in the accounts of Hywel Dda in the mid‑ninth century.
There is also evidence of an English, locational origin for the surname. The parish of Howell in south Lincolnshire, recorded as “Huuelle” in the Domesday Book of 1086 and later as “Huwell(e)” in the 1190 Pipe Rolls, derives its own name from the Old English personal by‑name “Huna” (from “hun,” bear cub) combined with “well(a),” meaning spring or stream. Early examples of the surname from this source include Walter de Huwella (Lincolnshire, 1165) and Alfredus de Howella (1177). Thus, some howelite families in England trace their name to this place rather than directly to the Welsh Hywel.
In the Middle Ages the surname, sometimes written as Howell, Howells or with other regional variants such as Hovell, Hovel, Houelley, and even Hoole, became embedded in the naming practices of both Wales and England. By the seventeenth century, individuals such as Thomas Howell, chaplain to Charles I and later bishop of Bristol, and John Howell, Welsh poet and militia fife‑major, illustrate the surname’s prominence across social strata. The name spread beyond Britain with emigration, being recorded in the United States, Canada, and Australia, with notable concentrations in the southeastern United States, where Welsh and English settlers established communities.
Today the surname Howel, in its various spellings, is still common across Britain and its former colonies. Its endurance reflects both a linguistic heritage linked to a distinctly Welsh personal name meaning “eminent” and, for some lineages, a connection to an English place name rooted in an Old English personal by‑name and the natural feature of a spring. The surname remains a testament to the interweaving of patronymic tradition, geographic identity and migration over the centuries.
Typical given names associated with the Howel surname
Male
- Rees
Female
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Howel in...
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There are approximately 72 people named Howel in the UK. That makes it one of Britain's least common surnames. Only around one in a million people in Britain are named Howel.
