The Campbell Surname
- Meaning
- crooked mouth
- Type
- Descriptive (nickname)
- Root
- Gaelic cam beul
- Chiefly
- Argyll and the west of Scotland
Campbell comes from the Gaelic cam beul, ‘crooked mouth’ — a nickname that attached to an ancestor and then outlived him by some centuries, as nicknames in surnames tend to. The spelling was later tidied towards Latin de campo bello, ‘of the fair field’, which is a more flattering story and almost certainly a later invention.
It became one of the most numerous names in Scotland, concentrated in Argyll, and travelled widely with Scottish emigration to Canada, Australia and the United States.
Bestow the name a title it never had
An honorific Lord or Lady certificate in the Campbell name, hand-finished and sealed, with a square metre of Scottish woodland dedicated alongside it. A novelty, magnificently done — and a good deal more fun than a family tree.
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