Skip to main content

Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English (Norfolk) : nickname from a reduced form of Middle English apostel ‘apostle’ (Old English apostol, via Latin from Greek apostolos ‘messenger’, ‘delegate’, from apostellein ‘to dispatch’). As a nickname, this may have been used for someone who had played the part of one of the twelve apostles in a play or pageant. However, the word was also used as a personal name. Compare Postlethwait.

Join the Family

Your partner in parenting from baby name inspiration to college planning.

Subscribe