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Last name origins & meanings:

  1. Welsh: from the Welsh personal name Ith(a)el, Old Welsh Iudhail ‘bountiful lord’.
  2. English: habitational name from a place in West Yorkshire, which is probably named with a derivative of Old English īdel ‘unused ground’, ‘patch of waste land’.
  3. English: derogatory nickname from Middle English idel ‘idle’, ‘indolent’, ‘useless’, ‘worthless’, ‘devoid of good works’.