Southwell Family History
Southwell Name Meaning
English:: from Middle English south ‘south’ + wel(le) ‘well pool spring’ (Old English sūth + wella). The surname may be topographic for someone who lived ‘by the south well’ or ‘south of the well’ or habitational from a place so named such as Southwell (Nottinghamshire) or Southwell on the Isle of Portland (Dorset). in Yorkshire and Lancashire often a hypercorrect form of Soothill a habitational name from Soothill in Dewsbury (Yorkshire) from Old English sōt ‘soot’ + hyll ‘hill’.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022