Bell surname history

Bell is one of the 100 most common in Ireland, and is found most frequently by far in the northern part of the country, particularly in Ulster, where it is is especially numerous in counties Antrim and Down.

In Ulster, Bell is almost always of Scottish origin, the family being one of the infamous "riding clans" along the Borders, descended from Gilbert le fitz Bel, bel meaning "beautiful" or "handsome". After the destruction of the power of these clans in the early seventeenth century, many Bells migrated to Ulster during the Plantation.

The name may also, more rarely, be a phonetic anglicisation of the Scots Gaelic Mac Ghille Mhaoil, which was also turned into MacIlveil and MacGilveil.