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Many assume it's a French name, but it often occurs in US census records for people born in Ireland..
Irish families often spell it "Lavalle" or "Lavelle" but also "Leavell" and "Levell" and other variations.
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Lavelle Surname Origin Posted by: Joseph Lavelle (jmlaval at banet.net) Date: August 15, 1999 at 07:56:07 Lavelle, O'Mulfaal
Different as they sound in English Lavelle and Mulfaal are both anglicized forms of the Irish O'Maolfabhail. This has been further disguised in some places under the form Melville, an aristocratic sounding surname which has also been adopted by some Mulvihils anxious to hide their Gaelic ancestry.
Lavelle is the usual form: it is of frequent occurrence in Connacht, particularly in County Mayo, where Lawell is a variant of Lavelle.
The families of O'Maolfabhail who are now know as Lavelle are of the sept originally seated at Donaghpatrick in the barony of Clare (County Galway). Hardiman writing in 1846, says that the anglicized form Lavelle was then coming into use, the name being at that time normally O'Mullawill. It should be noted, however, that O'Lawell, O'Lowell and O'Lavell appear in the seventeenth century Hearth Money Rolls for County Armagh.
Families named Lavelle, until recently, resided almost exclusively in Connacht and mostly in County Mayo. Descendants of the O'Maolfabhail sept who established themselves in County Donegal took the surname Fall.
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