This is a very rare and unusual surname. It is in fact so unusual that no other surname anywhere in the Western World, appears to have a spelling directly associated with it. Although not appearing to be English, it would seem that in fact it almost certainly is English. To add to the puzzle, it would also seem that the name is only recorded in the diocese of the city of Birmingham in Warwickshire, or certainly this was the case in Victorian times. It is our opinion that the name is either a dialectal transpostion of another more popular surname of which the only likely candiate would seem to be "Fellow", or more likely still it is a locational surname from (say) the village of Fellow Green in Surrey, or Fellow's Hall in County Armagh, Ireland.
Locational surnames are usually 'from' names. That is to say that they are surnames that were given to people after they have left their original homestead. In past times the easiest way to identify a stranger, was to call him or sometimes her, by the name of the place from whence they came. Local dialects and accents being very 'thick', and spelling even as recently as the 19th century, problematical, often lead to the development of 'sounds like' spellings for many surnames. In this case the first recording that we have is that of James Flello who married Elizabeth Parden at the church of St Martin's, Birmingham, on January 17th 1853.© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2024
Enjoy this name printed onto our colourful scroll, printed in Olde English script. An ideal gift.