The history of your name

The SEWELL surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
Total Rank Frequency % Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot) 20,736 1586 0.008 77
United States (1880 census) 4,051 1524 0.008 81
Change since 1880 +16685 -62 0 -4
Other Countries
Australia 1,686 963 0.01 103
United Kingdom 8,025 761 0.017 175
Top States for SEWELL by Total
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
Texas 2,069 1205 0.010 99
Georgia 1,842 562 0.023 225
Florida 1,449 1396 0.009 91
Alabama 1,289 565 0.029 290
California 1,219 2540 0.004 36
Top States for SEWELL by Frequency
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
Alabama 1,289 565 0.029 290
Georgia 1,842 562 0.023 225
Tennessee 943 911 0.017 166
Kentucky 662 879 0.016 164
Maryland 849 655 0.016 160

Notes

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called SEWELL live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called SEWELL represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called SEWELL in Texas than any other state, but you are more likely to find a SEWELL by picking someone at random in Alabama than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of SEWELL

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Location or Geographical Feature

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the SEWELL surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the SEWELL surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of SEWELL in the USA

Classification Total Percent
Mixed Race 355 1.71
White (Hispanic) 311 1.5
Native American/Alaskan 147 0.71
Asian/Pacific 112 0.54
White (Caucasian) 14,955 72.12
Black/African American 4,856 23.42

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the SEWELL surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of SEWELL in historical publications

SEWEL. SEWELL. Sewallis is a very ancient personal name, particularly in the family of Shirley, Earl Ferrers. A Sewallis, who certainly possessed Lower Eatington, co. AVarwick, before the Conquest, is said to have been a " noble Saxon, issuing from the royal dukes of Saxony," (Stemmata Shirleiana, p. 5) ; but this is unsupported by any evidence. The name latinized Sewallis was doubtless Sewall or Sawald, a not uncommon baptismal appellation in Saxon times, and not improbably identical with the Ceadwal or Cedwalla of the days of the Heptarchy. Sewall is the spelling still retained in America, but in England Sewell (often modified to Shewell) is the prevailing form. It must not be forgotten, however, that in some instances the name may be local. Four places called Sewelle occur in Domesday ; and a John de Sewell was a follower of the Black Prince into Aquitaine. Eymer's Feed., c. 136G.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.


Similar names to SEWELL

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as SEWELL.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.

Matches are generated automatically by a combination of Soundex, Metaphone and Levenshtein matching.

Potential typos for SEWELL

The following words are slight variants of SEWELL that are likely to be possible typos or misspellings in written material.