Fell Family History

English (chiefly northern): topographic name for someone who lived by an area of high ground or by a prominent crag, from northern Middle English fell ‘high ground’, ‘rock’, ‘crag’ (Old Norse fjall, fell). English, German, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): metonymic occupational name for a furrier, from Middle English fell, Middle High German vel, or German Fell or Yiddish fel, all of which mean ‘skin’, ‘hide’, or ‘pelt’. Yiddish fel refers to untanned hide, in contrast to pelts ‘tanned hide’ (see Pilcher).

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press