Frequency: (1102)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
English: 1. from a variant of the medieval female personal name Mab(be), a short form of Middle English, Old French Amabel (from Latin amabilis ‘loveable’). This has survived into the 20th century in the short form Mabel. 2. possibly from an unattested Old English male personal name, Mappa. 3. Welsh: from Old Welsh map, mab ‘son’, which was used as a distinguishing epithet.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
