The story
- Old French · derived frommesnil“cottage”
- English todayMeynell
Two main origins: * From Old French mesnil (“cottage”), a topographic surname for someone who lived in an isolated dwelling. * From a Norman female personal name composed of the Proto-Germanic elements *maginą (“power, might”) and *hildiz (“battle, fight”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.