Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • English : habitational name from a place so called; there is one in Cambridgeshire and another in Northamptonshire, both named with Old English beorn ‘warrior’ (genitive plural beorna) or the Old English personal name Beorna + well(a) ‘stream’.
  • A John Barnwell (c.1671–1724) emigrated to SC from Ireland at the end of the 17th century.