Recorded in England as Marfell, Morfall, Morfell, Murfell and possibly others, this is a surname of confused origins. It would seem to be locational, and from a place in England with one of the surname spellings, or at least something like one of them. However a search of the known gazetters of the British Isles of the past three centuries has failed to produced any such place, or anything quite like it. This would suggest that either the name originates from a now "lost medieval village probably called "mor - fell" or the moor on the hill, from the pre 7th century Norse-Viking, or it is probably not English at all! This brought us to look at similar sounding surnames, or at least similar to Marfell. This spelling seems to have the earliest recording of the various spelling forms, being that of Mary Marfell who married Richard Warren at St James, Dukes Place, Westminster, on July 2nd 1691. This was a time of great religious and political upheaval throughout the continent, and it is possible that the spelling is a version of the French surname Marval or Marvel. This was also locational, from Merville in the department of Nord. First introduced into the British Isles after the Norman Conquest of 1066 as Merville, it was reintroduced by Huguenot protestant refugees between 1580 and 1730. The French being at the bottom of the popularity list, many changed their name spelling to "English" forms as a mini-disguise. This may well be one of them, but we have not been able to prove it positively.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2024