This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. Ap-hoel or Ap-howel (Welsh), 'the son of Hoel'; v. Howel.

Elizabeth Ap Howell. Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem.

John Ap-Howell. Calendarium Rotulorum Chartarum.

John Appowell. Valor Ecclesiasticus.

1547. William Pypar and Jone Appowell: St. Dionis Backchurch (London).

John ap-Howell, prebendary of St. David's, 1554: History and Ant. St. David's.

William ap John ap Howell: Visit, of Glouc, Harleian Society.

(a) Bapt. 'the son of Poul,' or Powl, or Powel, i.e. Paul (v. Powle). 'Powle, a propyr name, Paulus': Promptorium Parvulorum 'Powel' (i.e. Paul), Piers Plowman.

Henry Powel, London, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Geoffrey Powel, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Mazelina Powel, Suffolk, ibid.

Hugh Poul, Buckinghamshire, ibid.

John Powell, or Powle, sup. for B.A., June, 1532: Register of the University of Oxford.

Probably half of our Powells are of pure English descent. That all Powells are Welsh is a great fallacy.

(Celtic) 1 the Welsh Ap-Howel(l = Son of Howel(l: v. Howel.

John ap-Howell. —Charter-Rolls.

Trahern ap-Howel (a Welsh hostage in Chester Castle).—Chesh. Chmbrlns.’ Accts., a.d. 1320.

2 for the old Welsh pers. name Pwyll = Forward; Wary [Welsh pwyll] ‘Pwyll, pendevig Dyved’ (Pwyll, lord of Dyfed).—Mabinogion.

(Anglo-Latin) forms of Poul, Paul, q.v.

Seinte Powel vorbead wümmen to prechen.—Ancren Riwle (‘Speche’).

This Welsh name is an occasional synonym of Guilfoyle, q.v

“Son of Howell” in Welsh (Ap - Howell).

(Welsh) The son of Howell (eminent).

Ap-Howel-the son of Howel, a personal name common in Wales. The Powells of Nant Eos, co. Cardigan, are descended from Philip ap Howell, whose pedigree is traced to Edwin ap Grono, Lord of Tegaingl, founder of the XIII. noble tribe of North Wales and Powys. The Powells of Brandlesome, co. Lancaster, spring from Walter Powell of Bucknell in Shropshire, temp. Elizabeth, who was of the posterity of Rhys ap Tudor, King of South Wales. B.L.G. There are many other families of undoubted antiquity, derived from the best ancestry of the principality, though the name of Powell is, in all cases, of comparatively late adoption.

AP HOWELL: (Welsh.) The son of Howell. Hence Powell.

A contraction of the Welsh Ap Howell, the son of Howell. It may also be deduced from Paul, of which it was a former orthography:

"After the text of Crist, and Powel, and Jon."

Wright's Chaucer, 7229.

(Welsh), Ap Howell, Son of Howell. (variant: Howell.)

From the French, Puel; a personal name.

Powell. —Its great home is in Herefordshire, but it is also very frequent in Monmouthshire, Shropshire, and South Wales. Thence it advances across England, reaching the counties of Susses and Norfolk, and establishing itself also in Dorset and Berks. Powell is the contraction of Ap - Howel, the son of Howel or Howell, a common name in Wales. It is, in truth, remarkable that the names of Howell and Howells have, in a general sense, the same distribution as Powell. They mostly characterise South Wales and Monmouthshire, and to a less extent Shropshire, Herefordshire, and, strangely enough, Norfolk. The isolated colony of the Norfolk Howells and Powells invites some further explanation.

The name of Powell will be found referred to under Howell.

Powell, Ap - Howel, the son of Howel, is the name of many old Welsh families, by whom it has been adopted within the last three centuries. Thus, if we take the old Brecknockshire family of Powell of Tyle - glâs, we find that previous to the 16th century the prevailing name was Howel or Ap Howel (Jones' "Brecknockshire"). According to Lower, there were Powells in Shropshire in the reign of Elizabeth.