Blackwell surname meaning

Blackwell is an English habitational surname from any of various places called Blackwell—in Derbyshire, Durham, Warwickshire, and elsewhere—or a topographic name for someone living by a dark spring or stream. The elements are Old English blæc, “black” or “dark,” and wæll or well, “spring” or “stream.” Blackwall and Blakewell are related-looking forms. As with other common place-surnames, the shared spelling does not prove one village of origin. Place is high confidence because the toponymic reading is stable across surname dictionaries.