Frequency: (15291)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
English: habitational name from any of various places, for example in Cumbria, Derbyshire, County Durham, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire, named Blackwell, from Old English blæc ‘black’, ‘dark’ + wæll(a), well(a) ‘spring’, ‘stream’.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
