Frequency: (219)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
French (southwestern): metonymic occupational name for a harvester, from javelle, a term for a sheaf of grain which was loosely bound and left on the ground to ripen.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
