Heal Family History

English:: topographic or habitational name for someone who lived in or by a nook or hollow or at a place called with this word (from Middle English hele Old English heale dative singular of healh ‘nook or hollow’).

Hele in Somerset derives from this word but the surname arises chiefly from one or more of the many minor localities named Heal(e) or Hele in Devon. In southwestern England and Kent this is an equivalent of Hale.

In the southeast Midlands of England perhaps a variant of Hell variant of Eele which is in most cases a variant of Ell.

But in some cases from Middle English ele ‘eel’ (Old English ǣl) perhaps a nickname for someone of slippery character.