Family name origins & meanings
- French : from Old French du mesnil ‘from the house’ (from Late Latin mansionile, a diminutive of mansio ‘house’, ‘dwelling’), hence a topographic name denoting someone who lived in an isolated dwelling, or a habitational name for someone from one of the minor places named Le Ménil or Le Mesnil.
- A family of this name from Normandy, France, is recorded in Quebec city in 1668.