Fennell Family History
Fennell Name Meaning
English: metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of fennel from Middle English fenel finel finol ‘fennel’ (Old English finugl from Late Latin fenuculum). Fennel was widely used in the Middle Ages a for its medicinal and culinary uses. The surname may also have been a topographic name for someone who lived near a place where the herb grew or was grown such as the lost place in or near Litlington and Wilmington (Kent) known only from the early surname forms. Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Fionnghail ‘descendant of Fionnghal’ a personal name composed of the elements fionn ‘fair white’ + gal ‘valor’.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022