Dunwell Family History

English:: topographic or habitational name from Middle English don dun(ne) ‘dark’ + wel(le) ‘water source stream’. The name may be topographic denoting someone who lived ‘(by the) dark stream’ or a habitational name from a place so named such as Dunwell in Ugborough (Devon).

It is likely that many instances of the surname derive from a lost or as yet unidentified place in Yorkshire. From a Middle English continuation of the Old English personal name Dūnweald from dūn ‘hill’ + weald ‘power’.