Ellis Family History

English: from the Middle English personal name Elis, an Old French vernacular form of Elias, the Latin and New Testament Greek form of Hebrew Eliyahu; see Elijah and compare Elias, Lias, Ely. This surname is also common among African Americans.

English: possibly in some instances from the Middle English female personal name Elice, a pet form of Elizabeth.

Welsh: from Elis, a shortened form of the Welsh personal name Elisse (earlier Elisedd, a derivative of elus ‘kindly, benevolent’).

As usual in Welsh, the stress in Elisse is on the penultimate syllable -li-, which shifts to initial El- when the name is shortened to Elis. It later became confused with Ellis in 1 above.

Americanized form of some original Jewish (Ashkenazic) surname (most likely based on Yiddish form of the Biblical personal name Elijah).