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Surname Etymology and Meaning of BEAL

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

(origin: Local) Biel, a town in Switzerland. The Gaelic word "Beul," signifies the mouth, and by metonymy, eloquent, musical.

Source: An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on their Derivation and Import (1857).

1. English (of Norman origin): from Old French bel(e) ‘fair’, ‘lovely’ (see Beau), either a nickname for a handsome man or a metronymic from this word used as a female personal name.
2. English: habitational name from places so named in Northumberland and West Yorkshire. The former of these (Behil in early records) comes from Old English beo ‘bee’ + hyll ‘hill’; the latter (Begale in Domesday Book) is from Old English beag ‘ring’, here probably used in the sense ‘river bend’, or an unattested personal name Beaga derived from this word + halh ‘nook’, ‘recess’.
3. French (Béal): topographic name for someone who lived by a mill race, from the Lyonnaise dialect term béal, bezale, bedale (of Gaulish origin).
4. Americanized spelling of German Biehl or Bühl (see Buehl).

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)