Profile managers: Amy Wiemer [send private message] and One Name Studies WikiTree [send private message]

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This is a One Name Study to collect together in one place everything about one surname and the variants of that name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join our study to help make it a valuable reference point for people studying lines that cross or intersect.

Name Origin - Joel

English: variant of Jewell

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names

Surname meaning for "Jewell"

English (of Breton or Cornish origin): from a Celtic personal name, Old Breton Iudicael, composed of elements meaning ‘lord’ + ‘generous’, ‘bountiful’, which was borne by a 7th-century saint, a king of Brittany who abdicated and spent the last part of his life in a monastery. Forms of this name are found in medieval records not only in Devon and Cornwall, where they are of native origin, but also in East Anglia and even Yorkshire, whither they were imported by Bretons after the Norman Conquest.

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

Surname: Joel

This unusual and interesting name is a variant form of the name "Jekyll", itself of Breton or Cornish origin and deriving from a Celtic personal name, in Old Breton "Indicael", composed of elements meaning "Lord", with "generous, bountiful". The name became "ledecael" and later again "Gicquel", surviving in modern French as "Jezequel". A 7th Century saint named "indicael" was a King of Brittany who abdicated and spent the last part of his life in a monastery. The modern English surname, found in its native areas of Devon and Cornwall, is also found in areas of Breton settlement such as East Anglia and Yorkshire. The variants of the name "Jekyll" include "Jiggle", "Jewell", "Jockle", "Joel" and "Joule". Anne Jewell and Nicholas Boane were married at St. Giles Cripplegate, London, in August 1568. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Juel, witness, which was dated 1247, in the "Bedfordshire Assize Rolls", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Source: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/joel