Russell (surname)

Last updated
Russell
Language(s) Anglo-Norman
Origin
Meaningred, or a toponymic
Region of originFrance, Ireland, Scotland, England
Other names
Variant form(s)Rosel; Rousel; Russel; Rossell; Roussel;
Frequency comparisons: [1]

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 (not, as has also been claimed, Le Rozel, Manche). [2] 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 (represented in contemporary Latin documents as Rosellus), given to men with red hair. [2] This nickname was a diminutive of the Norman-French rus (Old French ros, Modern French roux [3] ), meaning 'red', and was also an archaic name for the red fox, [4] 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," [2] and surname dictionaries have preferred to derive the surname from the nickname. Dictionaries also state that the English name Rufus originally meant "red haired". [4] [5]

Contents

People with surname Russell include:

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

W

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Russell Surname Meaning and Geographic Distribution". forebears.co.uk. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 J. Horace Round, "The Origin of the Russells", in Studies in Peerage and Family History, Westminster: Archibald Constable and Company, 1901, pp. 250–278
  3. ↑ "roux, rousse", Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales (in French)
  4. 1 2 Henry Harrison, Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary, London: The Moreland Press, 1918, vol. 2, p. 130.
  5. ↑ Patrick Hanks, ed. Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN   0-19-508137-4, vol. 3, p. 240.
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