Small surname meaning

Small is an English and Scottish nickname from Middle English smal(e), describing someone slender, slight, or short in stature. Like other size nicknames, it could stick for contrast as well as literal build, and it could arise independently in many places. Smalls and Smale are related forms; Smalley is a separate but sometimes confused surname with its own place-name history. In North America the spelling can also translate European surnames whose meaning is simply “small” or “little,” so a US Small family is not automatically English. Nickname is high confidence for the catalog’s lead English and Scottish reading.