Powell

also Howell, Howells

ap Hywel, the contracted patronymic that descends from Hywel Dda, the king who wrote Welsh law.

Origin: Powys, Wales
Famous bearer: Anthony Powell (1905–2000), novelist (A Dance to the Music of Time)
Register: Welsh family

Territory of Powell

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Powell

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Powell community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Powell has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Powell clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

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What does the Powell name mean?

ap Hywel, son of Hywel, contracted in the patronymic-elision pattern that also gave us Pritchard (ap Richard), Pugh (ap Hugh) and Bevan (ab Evan). The 'a' of 'ap' falls away, the 'p' attaches to the following name, and the result is hereditary. Hywel itself is an ancient Welsh personal name borne by Hywel Dda, Hywel the Good, the 10th-century king who codified Welsh law.

The history of Powell

Powell is densest in mid- and south-east Wales, Powys, Monmouthshire, the Marches. The name preserves the patronymic mechanic in its first letter, and traces (in popular tradition, more loosely than in genealogy) to Hywel Dda, Hywel ap Cadell, king of Deheubarth and most of Wales in the 940s, the first ruler to codify the Welsh laws into a written corpus that would govern Welsh communities for the next four hundred years.

The unrelated variant Howell / Howells preserves the patronymic without the 'p-' contraction. Both names share the same etymological root.

The Powells of Nanteos near Aberystwyth, an 18th-century Cardiganshire gentry family, were keepers of the Nanteos Cup, a wooden cup of medieval origin that 19th- and 20th-century Welsh tradition identified, optimistically, as a fragment of the Holy Grail brought from Glastonbury at the Dissolution.

Champions of the Powell name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

Hywel Dda
The tenth-century King of Deheubarth and effective overlord of most of Wales who at the synod of Whitland around 945 codified the laws of Wales, the legal system that governed the country in its native form for the next two and a half centuries until the Edwardian conquest of 1282.

Step Into History

Walk the streets and seats the Powell name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

Step Into History · New

Walk Raglan Castle in 1645Enter →

The grandest castle-palace in Wales at its height — the moated Yellow Tower, fountain courts and long gallery, on the eve of the siege.

Notable bearers of the Powell name

Anthony Powell (1905–2000), novelist (A Dance to the Music of Time)
Enoch Powell (1912–1998), politician, classicist

Stories of Powell

Hywel Dda and the Laws
c. 945
Around the year 945 the king of Deheubarth and most of Wales, Hywel ap Cadell, called Hywel Dda or Hywel the Good, summoned six lawful men of from each commote in Wales to a council at the white house on the river Taf at Whitland in Carmarthenshire. They sat for forty days and forty nights, on oath. What they produced was the first written codification of the customary law of the Welsh: a single redacted body of law that would govern Wales for the next four centuries, until Edward I imposed English common law in 1284. The Law of Hywel was Wales's first national document. It is also one of the most humane bodies of medieval law to survive anywhere in Europe.
Read the story →

Frequently asked

What does the surname Powell mean?

Where does the Powell family come from?

The Powell family is rooted in Powys and Gwent, in Wales. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Powys and Sir Fynwy. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Powell family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Powell name has been concentrated in Maelor, Dyffryn Clwyd, Ceredigion, Sir Gâr, Sir Benfro and Casnewydd. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Powell a Wales surname?

Yes, Powell is a Wales surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is Wales, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

How old is the Powell surname?

Powell is densest in mid- and south-east Wales, Powys, Monmouthshire, the Marches. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Powell name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Powell family known for?

Ap Hywel, the contracted patronymic that descends from Hywel Dda, the king who wrote Welsh law. Powell is densest in mid- and south-east Wales, Powys, Monmouthshire, the Marches.

Who is the most famous Powell?

The best-known bearer of the Powell name is Anthony Powell (1905–2000), novelist (A Dance to the Music of Time). Other prominent figures of the family include Enoch Powell (1912–1998), politician, classicist.

Who are some famous Powells?

Notable bearers of the Powell name include Anthony Powell (1905–2000), novelist (A Dance to the Music of Time) and Enoch Powell (1912–1998), politician, classicist. Each is profiled on the family page, with cross-links to the geography, stories, and historical events tied to their life.

What stories are told about the Powell family?

The Powell family is associated with Hywel Dda and the Laws. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of Hywel Dda and the Laws?

Around the year 945 the king of Deheubarth and most of Wales, Hywel ap Cadell, called Hywel Dda or Hywel the Good, summoned six lawful men of from each commote in Wales to a council at the white house on the river Taf at Whitland in Carmarthenshire. They sat for forty days and forty nights, on oath. The event is dated to c. 945.

Is Howell the same family as Powell?

Yes. Howell is a historical spelling variant of the Powell name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Is Howells the same family as Powell?

Yes. Howells is a historical spelling variant of the Powell name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Where is the Powell surname found today?

Wales is the primary historical home of the Powell surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same Wales origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Powell family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Powell family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of Wales so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Powell family today?

The seat for the head of the Powell family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.