Meaning of Last Name

Maxwell is an Irish, Jewish, and Scottish surname. The Scottish name is a habitational name, derived from a location near Melrose, in Roxburghshire, Scotland. This name was first recorded in 1144, as Mackeswell, meaning "Mack's spring (or stream)" (from the Old English well[a].). The surname Maxwell is also common in Ulster; where it has, in some cases, been adopted as alternate form of the surname Miskell. The surname Maxwell is also used as a Jewish surname, either as an adoption of the Scottish name, or as an Americanization of one of several like-sounding Jewish surnames. The surname Maxwell is represented in Scottish Gaelic as MacSual.