A female name. this is a difficult name. The probability is that it is of Celtic origin. Muriel occurs in the Mabinogion, and there is an Irish name Muirgheal, compound of muir ‘the sea’ and geal ‘bright’. Muriel is first found in Brittany and Normandy in the 11th C, when it seems to have been borne by several nuns, e.g. Muriel mother of Thomas of Bayeux (1070—1100), Archbishop of Canterbury, and a mysterious Muriel, apparently also a nun, to vhom poems were addressed by Baudri de Bourgueil (1046-1130) and by Serlan de Bayeux (1050-1113). William I is said by Wace to have had a half-sister of the name. It does not appear to have been current in other parts of France or elsewhere on the Continent, which supports the supposition that it was a Celtic name. In England, however, where it was introduced by the Normans, it took firm root. Muriel, Meriel, and Miriel are common in the 12th and 15th C, giving rise to the surnames Merrall, Merrell, Merrill,Muriel, Murrell, Murrells: it was also a favourite name for English Jewesses, perhaps as a rendering of Miriam.It was not so common in later centuries, but survived in country districts; in a list of Yorkshire recusants in 1604, for instance, there are five women named Meriall or Meryall, and John Coke of Holkham in 1640 m. Meriel Wheatley. Charlotte Mary Yonge, History of ChristianNames, 2 vols. 1863. Revised ed. 1884 in 1863 wrote: an almost obsolete English name’, but in her 2nd edition 1884 she altered this to ‘both it and Meriel were once common and have lately been revived’.

A correspondence in Notes and Queries 1872-7 elicited the fact that, though not obsolete, it was then very rare. Lord Lyttelton wrote in 1874: ‘The name Muriel is an eminent one in my family and my eldest daughter is so named. In our old letters it is spelt Muriel, Meriel, Maryell.’ The revival of which Charlotte Mary Yonge, History of ChristianNames, 2 vols. 1863. Revised ed. 1884 speaks may have been partly due to Mrs Craik’s immensely popular novel John Halifax, Gentleman, published in 1856, one character in which, a blind child, is named Muriel ‘after the rather peculiar name’ of her father’s mother. Meriel has not shared in the revived vogue of Muriel, but it is still used in some families.

Muriel Curia Regis Rolls 1198, 1200, 1205, Hundred Rolls 1273. Muriella Curia Regis Rolls 1199, Feudal Aids 1285. Miriella Curia Regis Rolls 1199. Mirield Hundred Rolls 1273. Miriel, Mirielda Curia Regis Rolls 1205, 1207. Miriald Curia Regis Rolls 1207.