About the Howel Surname
A coat of arms belongs to a particular family line rather than to everyone named Howel, so the heraldry linked to Howell is a starting point, not an automatic right.
What Howel means
The spelling Howel grew out of Howell, a Welsh surname with a long paper trail. It grew out of a personal name: “From the personal name Hywel ("eminent")”.
Howel and Howell
Without the “l” of Howell, Howel is a simpler written form of the same name. The same family of names includes Hywel and Powell.
Want more than a summary? See the Howel family name pack.