The beal Surname
beal Name Meaning and History
- English (of Norman origin): from Old French bel(e) ‘fair’, ‘lovely’ (see Beau), either a nickname for a handsome man or a metronymic from this word used as a female personal name.
- English: habitational name from places so named in Northumberland and West Yorkshire. The former of these (Behil in early records) comes from Old English beo ‘bee’ + hyll ‘hill’; the latter (Begale in Domesday Book) is from Old English beag ‘ring’, here probably used in the sense ‘river bend’, or an unattested personal name Beaga derived from this word + halh ‘nook’, ‘recess’.
- French (Béal): topographic name for someone who lived by a mill race, from the Lyonnaise dialect term béal, bezale, bedale (of Gaulish origin).
- Americanized spelling of German Biehl or Bühl (see Buehl).
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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