Russell (given name)

Last updated
Russell
William, Lord Russell, by Gerard Soest.jpg
William Russell, Lord Russell (1639-1683) inspired a number of namesakes.
GenderMasculine
Language(s) English
Origin
Meaning Redhead
Other names
Short form(s)Russ, Rusty

Russell is a given name that originated from the surname Russell, which in turn derives from the French name russel (Old Norse rossel) "red-haired, from rus (Old Norse ros) "red hair color" and the suffix -el. [1] The name came into greater use in England as a first name in honor of William Russell, Lord Russell following his execution for treason in 1683. Supporters who believed his trial was unjust named their sons in his honor. Some American patriots considered Lord Russell a victim of a tyrannical British monarchy and a "martyr for liberty" and also named sons after him. Russell was the 197th most popular name for newborn boys in the United States in 1880 and reached the height of its popularity in 1914 when it was the 49th most popular name for American boys. It has remained in regular use in the Anglosphere throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Russell might be shortened to Russ or Rusty, which is a modern English hypocorism for a boy with red hair as well as a nickname for Russell. [2]

Contents

Notable people with the name include:

People

Fictional characters

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turner (surname)</span> Surname list

Turner is a common surname originating from Normandy, France, arriving in England after the Norman conquest with the earliest known records dated in the 12th century. It is the 28th-most common surname in the United Kingdom.

Doyle is a surname of Irish origin. The name is a back-formation from O'Doyle, which is an Anglicisation of the Irish Ó Dubhghaill, meaning "descendant of Dubhghall". There is another possible etymology: the Anglo-Norman surname D'Oyley with agglutination of the French article de. It means 'from Ouilly', the name of a knight who originated from one of the places named Ouilly in Normandy, such as Ouilly-le-Tesson, Ouilly-le-Vicomte, etc. The relationship with the family D'Oyly is unknown.

Blair is a Scots-English-language name of Scottish Gaelic origin.

Russ is a masculine given name, often a short form of Russell, and also a surname.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigel</span> Male given name

Nigel is an English masculine given name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darren</span> Name list

Darren is a masculine given name of uncertain etymological origins. Some theories state that it originated from an Anglicisation of the Irish first name Darragh or Dáire, meaning "Oak Tree". According to other sources, it is thought to come from the Gaelic surname meaning ‘great’, but is also linked to a Welsh mountain named Moel Darren. It is also believed to be a variant of Darrell, which originated from the French surname D'Airelle, meaning "of Airelle". The common spelling of Darren is found in the Welsh language, meaning "edge": Black Darren and Red Darren are found on the eastern side of the Hatterrall Ridge, west of Long Town. In New Zealand, the Darran Mountains exist as a spur of the Southern Alps in the south of the country.

Brett derives from a Middle English surname meaning "Briton" or "Breton", referring to the Celtic people of Britain and Brittany, France. Brette can be a feminine name.

Mort is both a given name and surname.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul (given name)</span> Name list

Paul is a common Latin masculine given name in countries and ethnicities with a Christian heritage and, beyond Europe, in Christian religious communities throughout the world. Paul – or its variations – can be a given name or surname.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miles (given name)</span> Name list

Miles or Myles is a Norman French masculine given name of uncertain meaning. It might have been a changed diminutive of the name Michael that was influenced by miles, the Latin word for a soldier, because of associations with Archangel Michael, the Roman Catholic patron saint of the military. Milo, the variant of the name used most often during the medieval era, might also have been influenced by the Slavic word element -mil, meaning gracious. Myles is a variant spelling in English. In Ireland, the name was used as an English substitute for Irish language names such as Maolra, or Maolmhuire, both meaning devoted to Mary, Maolmhorda, meaning servant of the great, and Maolruanaí, meaning servant of the champion. Development of the name might also have been influenced by the Persian name Mylas, meaning brave. The original name of Miles, an Orthodox Christian saint, was Mylas. The name has been in regular use in the Anglosphere since the 1500s. It was popularized in England by Myles Coverdale, who produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English in 1535. In the United States, the name became well-known due to Myles Standish, a soldier who arrived on Plymouth Rock on the Mayflower with the Pilgrims in 1620. American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a popular 1858 poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish, in which the fictionalized Standish is rejected by Priscilla Mullins, who chooses John Alden as her husband instead. Miles and Myles were both more commonly used in the United States than in the United Kingdom by the 1800s due to usage by Irish immigrants to the United States and the influence of Miles Standish. There was an increase in usage from the mid- to late 20th century associated with jazz instrumentalist Miles Davis and with the popularity of fictional characters such as Star Trek character Miles O'Brien, Myles Mitchell, a character on the 1990s American television series Moesha, Miles Edgeworth, a character from the Ace Attorney video game franchise, and fictional Marvel Comics superhero Miles Morales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred (name)</span> Name list

Alfred is a masculine given name of English origin, a modern descendant of the Anglo-Saxon name Ælfræd, formed from the Germanic words ælf, meaning "elf", and ræd, meaning "counsel". Its feminine form originating from Romance languages is Alfreda, and diminutives of Alfred include Al, Alf, Alfy, Alfie, Fred, and Freddy. After the 11th-century Norman Conquest, many variants of the name emerged, most of which were not carried to the modern day. Today, Alfred is still in regular usage in a number of different regions, especially Great Britain, Africa, Scandinavia, and North America. It is one of the few Old English names that came into common use in Europe. Its name day is the 3rd of January both in Norway and Sweden.

Barry is both a given name and an Irish surname. The given name can be an Anglicised form of some Irish personal names or shortened form of Barrington, while the surname has numerous etymological origins, and is derived from both place names and personal names.

Corey is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a masculine version of name Cora, which has Greek origins and is the maiden name of the goddess Persephone. The name also can have origins from the Gaelic word coire, which means "in a cauldron" or "in a hollow".

Pierce is an English, Welsh, and Irish surname. The name is a cognate of French Pierre ('Peter'). Notable people with that surname include:

Gleeson is an Irish surname. It is an anglicisation of the Irish name Ó Glasáin or Ó Gliasáin. The name is most common in County Tipperary but originates in East County Cork, in the once powerful Uí Liatháin kingdom, where the Gleesons were great lords and sometimes kings. Notable people with the surname include:

The surname Finn has several origins. In some cases it is derived from the Irish Ó Finn, meaning "descendant of Fionn"; the byname means "white" or "fair-haired". In other cases it is derived from the Old Norse Finnr, a personal name sometimes derived from a byname, or else from compound names beginning with this word element. In other cases Finn is a German surname derived from an ethnic name referring to people from Finland. Notable people sharing the surname are listed below.

Norman is both a surname and a given name. The surname has multiple origins including English, Irish, Scottish, German, French, Norwegian, Ashkenazi Jewish, and Jewish American. The given name Norman is mostly of English origin, though in some cases it can be an Anglicised form of a Scottish Gaelic personal name.

The English surname or family name Hammond is derived from one of several personal names, most frequently

Russell, also Rosel, Rousel, Roussel, Russel or Rossell. The origin of the name has historically been subject to disagreement, with two distinct origins proposed. Early genealogists traced the Russel/Russell family of Kingston Russel from Anglo-Norman landholders bearing the toponymic surname 'de Rosel' or 'du Rozel', deriving from Rosel, Calvados, Normandy. However, J. Horace Round observed that these flawed pedigrees erroneously linked toponymic-bearing men with unrelated men who instead bore the Anglo-Norman nickname rus[s]el, given men with red hair. This nickname was a diminutive of the Norman-French rus, meaning 'red', and was also an archaic name for the red fox, which in turn borrowed from Old Norse rossel, "red-haired, from Old Norse ros "red hair color" and the suffix -el. Round concluded "there is no reason to suppose that the surname Russell was territorial at all," and surname dictionaries have preferred to derive the surname from the nickname. Dictionaries also state that the English name Rufus originally meant "red haired".

Ross is an English-language name derived from Gaelic, most commonly used in Scotland. It is also the name of a county in the highland area. It can be used as a given name, typically for males, but is also a typical family name for people of Scottish descent. Derived from the Gaelic for a "promontory" or "headland".

References

  1. Cottle, Basil (1967), "Russell", Penguin Dictionary of Surnames, Baltimore: Penguin Books
  2. Evans, Cleveland Kent (7 April 2024). "Evans: Russell is a surname that became a common first name". omaha.com. Omaha World Herald. Retrieved 8 April 2024.