Quayle

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. A family name of English or Manx origin, carried by a former American vice president among other notable people
2. A surname of English or Manx origin, borne by a number of people including a former United States vice president
3. An English and Manx family name, best known as the surname of a former American vice president and senator

Etymology: Quayle is best known today as the surname of Dan Quayle, the American vice president, but the name has two quite different roots. In the Isle of Man, it is a Manx form of McPhail, a Gaelic patronymic meaning "son of Paul" (or of the Gaelic name Pól), which gives the surname a Celtic lineage far from the English countryside. Families carrying the name there were thus descended from a personal name rather than from any trade or place. The other root is English and far more down to earth. Among medieval nicknames, "quail", the small game bird, was sometimes applied to a person, and the surname grew from that bird-name. Because the English and Manx forms both produce the same spelling, the name can be traced to two separate sources, each with its own origin story. Some families share a surname with the related "Fayle", which points to a similar spelling family rather than a shared ancestor.