Knowles

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surname of English origin, borne by many people, including the singer Beyoncé Knowles and the author John Knowles
2. An English family name derived from a place or from a personal name, carried by numerous notable people across many fields
3. A common English last name that appears among various public figures, such as musicians, writers and sportspeople

Etymology: Knowles is a surname that began as a description of a place. It comes from a genitive or plural form of Middle English "knol", meaning hilltop or hillock, so the first Knowles were people who lived at the top of a hill. Surnames of this kind were often coined by neighbours who needed to tell two men of the same first name apart, and a house on the brow of a rise was as good a identifier as any. The root word survives in the names of other English hills and places, which shows how ordinary the sense once was. The surname itself kept the old form of its base, so a name that now sounds like a personal title for a sharp-eyed family actually records a plain piece of English landscape.