Family name origins & meanings
- English : of uncertain origin. Reaney gives it as a variant of Mangnall, which he derives from Old French mangonelle, a war engine for throwing stones. It may alternatively be identical in origin with the German name in 2 below, but there is no evidence of its introduction to Britain as a personal name by the Normans, which is normally the case for English surnames derived from Continental Germanic personal names.
- German and French : from a Germanic personal name Managwald, composed of the elements manag ‘much’ + wald ‘rule’.