Wells

Meaning & origin /wɛlz/

From Old English wella, genitive plural of well (“spring”), in reference to a residence near a group of springs. The original use of the genitive case here would've indicated origin. The -s ending of the modern form would be added later on upon reanalysis after the breakdown of the case system (outside of pronouns) that occurred in the development of English.

Origin: surnames

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.