The maxwell Surname
maxwell Name Meaning and History
- Scottish: habitational name from a place near Melrose in Roxburghshire. The place name is first recorded in 1144 in the form Mackeswell ‘Mack’s spring or stream (Old English well(a))’.
- Irish: this surname is common in Ulster, where it has sometimes been adopted as an alternative to Miskell.
- Jewish: arbitrary adoption of the Scottish name, or Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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