Beal Family History

English (of Norman origin): variant of Beale 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. English (northern): habitational name from any of the places so named in Northumberland and Yorkshire.

The former of these (Behil in early records) is named with Old English bēo ‘bee’ + hyll ‘hill’; the latter (Begale in Domesday Book) with Old English bēag ‘ring’ here probably used in the sense ‘river bend’ or an unattested personal name Bēaga derived from this word + halh ‘nook recess’ (see Beagle).

An additional source may be Beald a farm in Cambridgeshire recorded as Bele super Dedhil c. 1195. In Lincolnshire the surname is perhaps from a word or name for a farm derived from Scandinavian bøli ‘farm’.

French (Béal): topographic name for someone who lived by a mill race from the Lyonnaise dialect term béal bezale bedale (of Gaulish origin).

Americanized form of German Biehl Biel or Bühl (see Buehl).