Russell (surname)

Russell, also Russel or Rossell, is a British surname. 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 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] 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.[4][5]

Russell
Language(s)Anglo-Norman
Origin
Meaningred, or a toponymic
Region of originEngland
Other names
Variant form(s)Russel & Rossell
Frequency Comparisons:[1]

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

References
  1. "Russell Surname Meaning and Geographic Distribution". forebears.co.uk. Retrieved 19 January 2014
  2. J. Horace Round, "The Origin of the Russells", in Studies in Peerage and Family History, Westminster: Archibald Constable and Company, Ltd., 1901, pp. 250-278
  3. CNTRL Site : etymology of "roux" (French)
  4. 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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