750 GATRELL members around the world

GATRELL Family History

This interesting surname with variant spellings Gatheral, Gatherall, Gaterell, Gatterel, Gatrall, and Gatrell, has two possible origins. Firstly, it may be taken literally as a medieval nickname from one who "gathers-all", and would have been used for a collector of items. It may also be of English locational origin, from a voiced form of Catterall in Lancashire. The placename is recorded as "Catrehala" in the Domesday Book of 1086 and derives from the Old Scandinavian "kattar-hali" meaning "cat's tail", here used of a farm on account of the lengthened shape of its land.