Wells (name)

Wells is a surname of English origin, but is occasionally used as a given name too. It derives from occupation, location, and topography. The occupational name (i.e. "Wellman") derives from the person responsible for a village's spring. The locational name (i.e. "Well") derives from the pre-7th century waella ("spring"). The topographical name (i.e. "Attewell") derives from living near a spring. The oldest public record is found in 1177 in the county of Norfolk. Variations of Wells include Well, Welman, Welles, Wellman and Wellsman. At the time of the British Census of 1881 Wells Surname at Forebears] its relative frequency was highest in Berkshire (3.2 times the British average), followed by Leicestershire, Oxfordshire, Kinross-shire, Huntingdonshire, Kent, Sussex, Lincolnshire, Dumfriesshire and Bedfordshire. People with the name include:

• Alan Wells (born 1961), English cricketer
• Alexander H. Wells (d. 1857), New York lawyer, newspaper editor and politician
• Alexander D Wells (born 1964), musician and salsa dancer living in Malta
• Alfred Wells (1814–1867), U.S. Representative from New York
• Alfred Wells (1859–1935), architect in South Australia
• Alice Stebbins Wells (1873–1957), first female officer in Los Angeles Police Dept
• Allan Wells (born 1952) Scottish Olympic athlete
• Alphege of Wells (or Ælfheah, died c.937), third Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Wells
• Andy Wells, mayor of the city of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
• Andrew Wells, character in the U.S. television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Angus Wells (1943–2006), British writer of genre fiction, including fantasy and westerns
• Audrey Wells (born 1960), American screenwriter, film director and producer