First name origins & meanings:
- Latin: Little one
- English: Alert
- Old Welsh: Son of Howell
First name variations: Pol, Pawl, Pablo, Paolo, Pauly, Pauley, Pawley, Pavel, Paulin, Pavlo, Paulo, Paulus, Pál, Paul, Powers, Power, Powal, Powall, Powel, Powil Last name origins & meanings:
- English (of Welsh origin): Anglicized form of Welsh ap
Hywel ‘son of Hywel’, a personal name meaning ‘eminent’
(see Howell).
- Irish: mainly of Welsh origin as
in 1 above, but sometimes a surname adopted as equivalent of Gaelic
Mac Giolla Phóil ‘son of the servant of St. Paul’ (see
Guilfoyle).
- This surname is extremely common in Wales and has also spread
throughout England and Ireland. The first recorded occurrence of the
surname in its modern form is Roger ap Howell, alias Powell, named in
a lawsuit in 1563. He was the grandson of Howell ap John (d.
1535). Snelling Powell, born in Carmarthen, Wales, in 1758, came to America in 1793 and was a successful actor and theater manager in Boston. Later members of the family include the novelist Anthony Powell
(b. 1905).
Famous people with this last name:
Colin Powell This name appears in the following lists:
Dancers
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