Bell
See also: bell, bèll, and bell'
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bɛl/
- Rhymes: -ɛl
- Homophones: bell, belle
Proper noun
Bell (countable and uncountable, plural Bells)
- A surname of Scottish and northern English origin for a bell ringer, bellmaker, or from someone who lived "at the Bell (inn)."
- The Bell telephone company (after Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.)
- A male given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.
- A female given name, variant of Belle; mostly used as a middle name in the 19th century.
- 1857 Charles Dickens, The Perils of Certain English Prisoners, Chapter 1:
- […] I found that her Christian name was Isabella, which they shortened into Bell, and that the name of the deceased non-commissioned officer was Tott. Being the kind of neat little woman it was natural to make a toy of—I never saw a woman so like a toy in my life—she had got the plaything name of Belltott. In short, she had no other name on the island.
- 1857 Charles Dickens, The Perils of Certain English Prisoners, Chapter 1:
- A number of places in the United States:
- A city in Los Angeles County, California.
- A town in Gilchrist County, Florida.
- An unincorporatedcommunity in Logan County, Illinois.
- A census-designated place in Adair County, Oklahoma.
- A town in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.
- Three townships in Pennsylvania.
- A village in Eastern Cape, South Africa.
- A village in the City of Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia.
- A rural town in Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia.
- A municipality in Mayen-Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
- A municipality in Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis, Rhineland-Palatinate.
Derived terms
- Baby Bell
- Bell County
- Bellhead
- Bell pair
- Bell shot
- Bell state
- Ma Bell
Noun
Bell (plural Bells)
- (US, Canada) a telephone utility; a Baby Bell.
Statistics
- According to the 2010 United States Census, Bell is the 106th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 220,599 individuals. Bell is most common among White (61.11%) and Black (32.35%) individuals.