Is the last name of Bell a Cherokee last name?

[Nancy Lake]

My Great Great Grandfather was John Nicolas Bell. I wonder how he got his last name? We believe he was of a Cherokee tribe and is on a census as mulatto born in 1832 and was listed as a Alabama native. He later moved to Big Rock Arkansas. Then to Texas. Married an Irish wife.

[?deezbaa']

If he was born in Alabama in 1832 he wasn't Cherokee, and is probably accurately listed as mulatto. There were only a handful of Cherokee in one tiny corner of Alabama and they were forcibly removed in 1830. So he couldn't have been Cherokee. The Cherokee were in Oklahoma by then.

If family folklore describes him as Cherokee, that is because it was socially unacceptable to have black blood at that time, and "Cherokee blood" was often used instead to explain a darker complexion. That story got passed down and following generations would believe it. This is extremely common, especially in the south, where millions of people all have the identical story that great-great grandma was a Cherokee. (when the census records all list her as black or mulatto)

[Maxi]

No surname 'belongs' to a country or a tribe, all surnames are words and words come from language and the influence of language......... clearly if your ancestor was documented on the census as mulatto then he was not NA or he would have been documented as such.......... surnames started in China, however the USA got the majority of their surnames from the influence of European languages and/or immigrants from Europe.......... so any surname 'origin' doesn't mean that is where your ancestry is from, for that you have to research to find out...........................................

Bell
This interesting surname, with variant spellings Bel and Belle, has a number of possible derivations. Firstly, it may be a metonymic occupational name for a bellringer or bellfounder, or a topographical name for someone living "at the bell"; this indicates either residence by an actual bell or "at the sign of the Bell", deriving from the Middle English, Olde English pre 7th Century "belle" meaning bell. Secondly, it may have derived from the medieval given name "Bel". As a man's name this is from the Old French "beu, bel" meaning "handsome", which was also used as a nickname. As a female name it represents a short form of Isobel, a form of Elizabeth. Finally, it may be an Anglicized form of the Gaelic "MacGiolla Mhaoil", "son of the servant of the devotee". The surname dates back to the mid 12th Century (see below). Early recordings include one Robert de la Belle (1222) London. Church recordings show the christening of Mary Bell, an infant, on August 13th 1541, at St. Peter's, Cornhill, London, and the marriage of Margarett Bell to Wylliam Traford on September 13th September 1551, at St. Mary's, Westminster, also in London. One Charles Bell, aged 23 yrs., a famine emigrant, sailed from Liverpool aboard the "Henry Clay", bound for New York, on April 15th 1846. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Seaman Belle, which was dated 1181 - 1187, in "Early London Personal Names", by E. Ekwall, during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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