Knowles Family History

English: topographic name for someone who lived at the top of a hill or by a hillock, from a genitive or plural form of Middle English knoll ‘hilltop’, ‘hillock’ (Old English cnoll; see Knoll), or habitational name from any of the many places named with this word. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Tnúthghail (see Newell).

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press