Purnell: Last Name Origin and Family Crest

Many Purnell families will find their roots under Parnell, the form most records use. The family name meaning is “Little Peter”, the same as for Parnell. Purnell writes “u” in place of the “a” found in Parnell, a common scribal difference. Regional accents shaped spellings long before dictionaries fixed them. You may also find the name written Pernell.

In the 2010 US Census, 8,441 Americans gave Purnell as their last name (rank 4,197). It sits among the 5,000 most common last names in the country.

A coat of arms belongs to a particular family line rather than to everyone named Purnell, so the heraldry linked to Parnell is a starting point, not an automatic right. Want more than a summary? See the Purnell family name pack.