Steele

Family name origins & meanings

• English and Scottish : from Middle English stele ‘steel’, hence a nickname for someone considered as hard and durable as steel, or metonymic occupational name for a foundry worker.
• This name was brought independently to New England by several different bearers from the 17th century onward. John Steele was one of the founders of Hartford, CT, (coming from Cambridge, MA, with Thomas Hooker) in 1635.