Family name origins & meanings
- Dutch and North German : patronymic from the personal name Wessel 1.
- One of the most prominent fur traders in New Netherland in the 1660s was Dirck Wessels(e) (1637–1717), who probably came to New Netherland before 1650 with his father, Wessel Wesselse, a West India Company employee. He also bore a secondary surname, <xref>Ten Broeck</xref>.