Family name origins & meanings
- English : from a medieval personal name, perhaps Old English Mūl (from Old English mūl ‘mule’, ‘halfbreed’). This was the name of a brother of Ceadwalla, King of Wessex (died 675), and is also found as a place name element. However, it may not have survived to the Conquest, and Domesday Book Mule, Mulo may instead represent Old Norse Mūli, which is probably from Old Norse mūli ‘muzzle’, ‘snout’.
- English : nickname for a stubborn person or metonymic occupational name for a driver of pack animals, from Middle English mule ‘mule’ (Old English mūl, reinforced by Old French mule, both from Latin mula ‘she-mule’).
- English : from the medieval female personal name Mulle, variant of Molle, a pet form of Mary (see Marie).
- French : nickname from mule ‘mule’ (see 2).
- Dutch : nickname for a gossip or someone with a large mouth, from Middle Dutch mule ‘mouth’, ‘snout’.
- Dutch : metonymic occupational name for a maker of slippers, from Middle Dutch mule ‘slipper’.
- Italian (also Mulé) : from the medieval nickname Mulé, Molé, from Arabic mawlā ‘gentleman’, ‘lord’, ‘master’, m(a)uley ‘my lord’.
- Sicilian and southern Italian : status name, from Arabic mawlā ‘master’, ‘owner’.