Bell

• IPA^(key): /bɛl/
• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Homophones: bell, belle

Bell (countable and uncountable, plural Bells)

1. A surname of Scottish and northern English origin for a bell ringer, bellmaker, or from someone who lived "at the Bell (inn)."
2. The Bell telephone company (after Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.)
3. A male given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.
4. A female given name, variant of Belle; mostly used as a middle name in the 19th century.
   • 1857, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in The Perils of Certain English Prisoners:

     […] I found that her Christian name was Isabella, which they shortened into Bell, and that the name of the deceased non-commissioned officer was Tott. Being the kind of neat little woman it was natural to make a toy of—I never saw a woman so like a toy in my life—she had got the plaything name of Belltott. In short, she had no other name on the island.

5. A number of places in the United States:
   1. A city in Los Angeles County, California.
   2. A town in Gilchrist County, Florida.
   3. An unincorporated community in Logan County, Illinois.
   4. A census-designated place in Adair County, Oklahoma.
   5. A town in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.
   6. Three townships in Pennsylvania.
6. A village in Eastern Cape, South Africa.
7. A village in the City of Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia.
8. A rural town in Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia.
9. A municipality of Mayen-Koblenz district, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
10. A municipality of Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis district, Rhineland-Palatinate.

Bell (plural Bells)

1. (US, Canada) a telephone utility; a Baby Bell.

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Bell is the 106^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 220,599 individuals. Bell is most common among White (61.11%) and Black (32.35%) individuals.

• Bell Plain