Mitchell

Origine et histoire

Patronymic surname derived from the medieval given name 'Michel', the Norman French form of Michael — from Hebrew 'Mikha'el', meaning 'Who is like God?'. The name arrived in Scotland with Norman settlers after the twelfth century, and 'Mitchell' represents the Scots phonetic rendering of the French pronunciation. The '-ell' ending is a Scots and northern English diminutive or softening of the final consonant, distinguishing this form from continental equivalents. Mitchell is distributed across the Scottish Lowlands and is particularly common in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, and Aberdeenshire.