About the Name Axtell Axtell is of Anglo-Saxon. And that's about all any researcher is sure of. See Research on the origins of Axtell.
Some mathematical thoughts on the name
Axtell is approximately the 11,415th most common name in the U.S. according to the US Census Name Search. About 0.001% of the USA is named Axtell. 72.507% of the country have names more common than Axtell. So, about three out of four Americans have a surname more common than Axtell.
0.001% of the US population (1 out of every 100,000 residents) is very roughly 2,600 living Americans with the surname Axtell. Some number of those changed their name TO Axtell at marriage and about the same number probably changed their name FROM Axtell at marriage. But Thomas Axtell's paternal descendancy (those descendants born with the surname Axtell) represents only about 1/2^10 (one over two to the tenth power) or 1/1024th of all his descendants. So, a complete decendancy would include about 2,000,000 living descendants (not accounting for the double counting of distant cousins marrying back into the paternal line). Perhaps one out of every 100 Americans is an Axtell cousin of some sort.
Thomas had only one son, Henry. So, most American Axtells also have common ancestors in Henry Axtell and Hannah Merriam.
"Axtelle" is a 20th Century variant. Jim (James Edward) Axtelle writes (1995):
My grandfather George E. Axtelle's (10-29a) first wife Jeanne B. Houser added the "e"
at the end of the name when my grandfather was away at WW1. The reason she did
this was because it bothered her when people pronounced the name "Axtl" leaving
the "e" silent. Well, not only do people still mis-pronounce the name in the
old way (silent "e") but now there is a new pronunciation which people treat the
"e" at the end as a hard "e" (AX-TEL-E). I don't know for sure but I imagine
this bothered my grand mother just as much.
The spelling variations among geographical names include Axtel, Ohio and Axtel, Kentucky. See Places named Axtell.
When I first posted this website in 1995, I asked here, "Does anyone know if they went by the name "Axtell" or by a middle name?" In 2000 I got my answer
Pat Wagner writes (Nov 2000):
I am the daughter-in-law of Axtell Byles, married to his son Calvin
Axtell Byles. You asked if Axtell Byles uses his first name - he does - his
nickname at one time was Ax. His father, Axtell J. Byles, went by A.J.
I have only heard the emphasis on the first syllable, Ax-tell,
but it is a slight accent.
Marcy Byles writes (Feb 2001):
My name is Marcy Byles, granddaughter of Axtell
Julius Byles, daughter of Axtell Byles. To answer your
question, my father does not have a middle name, and as far as I
know, his older brother, Julius Byles (deceased), didn't either.
Also in 1995, I found Axtell Sheets listed in the
Class of 1919 of Frankfort (Indiana) High School in a page of
Lori Bushman's Genealogy Website. This was back when a web search on Axtell
yielded only a few dozen pages. There is no Sheets family in the Axtell
genealogy, so I have no clue why he was given his unusual first name. I was
further surprised to see on Ebay in January 1999, a slide rule for auction with
his name imprinted in the upper left (see photo). He (she?) is still a mystery.
On the other hand, Axtell is used often as a middle name to honor the maternal line--at least since middle names became common around 1820. Are there any people with Axtell as a middle name who use it as their preferred name out there?
Trying to decide on a name for your child? Check out What to Name Your Axtell Baby.
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