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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • French : from Old French quar(r)el ‘bolt (for a crossbow)’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of crossbow bolts or a nickname for a short, stout man. The word also meant ‘paving slab’, and so it could also have been a metonymic occupational name for a street layer.
  • Probably a variant spelling of English Carrell or Irish Carroll.

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