Explore the Family Name Male

The meaning of Male

1. Welsh: from the personal name Mael (literally ‘prince’). 2. English (of Norman origin): nickname from Old French mail ‘mallet, club, mace’, or Middle English (Old French) maille ‘ring (of chain mail), armour’, or Old French maille ‘speckle, stain’, or Middle English maille (Old French maaille) ‘coin worth half a penny’, or from a shortened form of Anglo-Norman French amel, Old French esma(i)l ‘enamel’ (compare Mailer). Any of these terms might have been used to characterize an individual’s behaviour, occupation, or appearance. 3. English: nickname Middle English (Old French) male ‘bag, pouch’, also ‘stomach, belly’, perhaps given to someone who wore a distinctive pouch or bag or who made such bags (compare the Middle English occupational term malemakere), or to someone with a prominent belly. 4. English (of Norman origin): variant of Madle, a nickname from Old French, Middle English masle, madle (also Middle English male), ‘man, adult’ or adjectivally ‘male, masculine’. 5. English: in Lancashire perhaps a variant of Meale, either a nickname from Middle English mele ‘meal, ground cereal’, perhaps for a maker or seller of meal (compare Millman), or a topographic name from Middle English mele ‘sand-hill’ (Old Norse melr), as found in such placenames as North Meols (Lancashire), Ravensmeols in Formby (Lancashire), and Great Meols (Cheshire) (compare Meil). 6. Slovenian: nickname for a physically small man, from a derivative of mal ‘small, little’ (see Mal 1). Compare Mahle. 7. Dutch (Van der Male and Van Male): habitational name from any of a number of places in Flanders named Male. 8. Norwegian: habitational name from the farm name Male in Romsdal, derived from Old Norse mǫl ‘bank, layer of pebbles along a beach’. 9. Americanized form of Norwegian Mæle or of its variant Mæhle (see Mahle). Compare Mele.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.