English surname from Old French 'crenel' meaning battlement or fortification.
Carnell is an English-origin name that likely began as a surname derived from 'carnel' or 'kernel,' terms for the notched battlements of a medieval castle — from the Old French *crenel*, itself from Latin *crena*, meaning a notch or groove. The surname designated families who lived near or worked in fortified structures, and like many occupational and topographic surnames, it gradually migrated into use as a given name, particularly in African American communities in the twentieth-century American South and Midwest.
There is also a secondary possibility that Carnell developed as a variant of Cornell — itself derived from a Welsh place name or from the Latin *cornu* (horn) — through the kind of phonetic drift that often occurred when names passed through oral tradition across communities with limited access to standardized spelling. Whatever its precise origin, Carnell carries the dignified weight of a surname elevated to first-name status, a practice with long roots in American naming culture. The name saw its peak usage in the mid-twentieth century and is particularly associated with Black American naming traditions of the 1950s through 1970s, a period that saw significant creativity and individuality in given-name choices.
Carnell strikes an interesting balance: recognizable enough not to require constant spelling out, yet uncommon enough to feel genuinely distinctive. Its three syllables have a rolling, assured quality, and the name ages well — sounding equally credible on a child and on an elder.