The surname Wells
An English place surname, carried by 176,230 people in the United States.
Pronounced /wɛlz/ 1 syllable Soundex W420 Also a first name
Origin
English origin
From Old English wella, genitive plural of well (“spring”), in reference to a residence near a group of springs. The original use of the genitive case here would've indicated origin. The -s ending of the modern form would be added later on upon reanalysis after the breakdown of the case system (outside of pronouns) that occurred in the development of English.
Wells is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.
Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How common it is
2010 US Census
There were 176,230 people named Wells in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 1,752 Americans. That is up 3.3% since 2000, when the Census counted 170,635.
Who is named Wells
Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census
74% of people named Wells identified as white (not Hispanic), 20% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
- White (not Hispanic) 74%
- Black (not Hispanic) 20%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.4%
- Two or more races 2.2%
- American Indian and Alaska Native 0.9%
- Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%
Famous Wellss
55 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first
- Ida B. WellsAmerican journalist and civil rights activist (1862–1931)
- Kitty WellsAmerican country music singer (1919–2012)
- Claudia WellsAmerican actress, born 1966
- Dawn WellsAmerican actress (1938–2020)
- Horace WellsAmerican dentist and anaesthesia pioneer (1815-1848)
- Mary WellsAmerican pop/soul singer (1943–1992)
- Nahki WellsBermudian footballer, born 1990
- Martha WellsAmerican science fiction and fantasy author born in Fort Worth, Texas 1964
- Vernon WellsAustralian actor, born 1945
- Kellie WellsAmerican female Olympic 100m hurdler
- Kerry Anne WellsAustralian model, born 1951
- John WellsAmerican producer, writer and director (born 1956)
Notable Wellss come mostly from the United States (46), the United Kingdom (4) and Australia (4).
Spellings and sound-alikes
Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling
Other English surnames
Questions
- Where does the surname Wells come from?
- From Old English wella, genitive plural of well (“spring”), in reference to a residence near a group of springs. The original use of the genitive case here would've indicated origin. The -s ending of the modern form would be added later on upon reanalysis after the breakdown of the case system…
- How common is the surname Wells?
- 176,230 people in the United States had the surname Wells in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 1,752 Americans. It ranked 147th of 162,253 surnames.
- What ethnicity is the surname Wells?
- In the 2010 Census, 74% of people named Wells identified as white (not Hispanic), and 20% as Black (not Hispanic).
- Who is the most famous person named Wells?
- Ida B. Wells, American journalist and civil rights activist (1862–1931), followed by Kitty Wells.
- Where is the surname Wells most common?
- Wikidata records people named Wells in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia and 1 other country.
- How do you pronounce Wells?
- Wells is /wɛlz/, one syllable.
- What type of surname is Wells?
- Wells is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
- Is the surname Wells getting more or less common?
- More common. 170,635 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 176,230 in 2010, up 3.3%.
- What are other spellings of Wells?
- Wels.
- Is Wells also a first name?
- Yes. Wells is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.