Family name origins & meanings
- English and Scottish : topographic name, a variant of Sell 1.
- English and Scottish : occupational name for a saddler, from Anglo-Norman French seller (Old French sellier, Latin sellarius, a derivative of sella ‘seat’, ‘saddle’).
- English and Scottish : metonymic occupational name for someone employed in the cellars of a great house or monastery, from Anglo-Norman French celler ‘cellar’ (Old French cellier), or a reduction of the Middle English agent derivative cellerer.
- English and Scottish : occupational name for a tradesman or merchant, from an agent derivative of Middle English sell(en) ‘to sell’ (Old English sellan ‘to hand over, deliver’).
- German : probably a habitational name from a place named Sella near Hoyerswerda.