Show ContentsMendenhall History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Early Origins of the Mendenhall family

The surname Mendenhall was first found in Suffolk at Mildenhall, a small market town and civil parish which dates back to c. 1050 when it was listed as Mildenhale. By the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, the town was listed as Mitdenehalla and possibly meant "middle nook of land," having derived from the Old English words middel + halh. Mildenhall is also a village and civil parish in the Kennet Valley in Wiltshire and this village dates back further to 803 when it was listed as Mildanhald. Over one hundred years later, the village was listed as Mildenhalle in the Domesday Book. 1 But it is in the Suffolk town that we find the first occurrence of the surname for in 1170 Andrew Mildenhale was listed as holding estates in that county. The Mildenhall Treasure is a major hoard of highly decorated Roman silver tableware from the fourth-century AD, found at West Row, near Mildenhall in 1942 by Gordon Butler while ploughing.

Early History of the Mendenhall family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Mendenhall research. Another 95 words (7 lines of text) covering the years 1455, 1487, 1560 and 1614 are included under the topic Early Mendenhall History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Mendenhall Spelling Variations

Spelling variations of this family name include: Mildenhall, Mindenhall, Mendenhall, Miltonhall and others.

Early Notables of the Mendenhall family

Distinguished members of the family include John Mildenhall (1560-1614) or John Midnall, a British explorer and adventurer and one of the first to make an overland journey...
Another 26 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Mendenhall Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Mendenhall Ranking

In the United States, the name Mendenhall is the 3,335th most popular surname with an estimated 9,948 people with that name. 2


Mendenhall migration to the United States +

Some of the first settlers of this family name were:

Mendenhall Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
  • H Mendenhall, who landed in San Francisco, California in 1851 3
  • Mrs. Mendenhall, aged 40, who settled in America, in 1894
Mendenhall Settlers in United States in the 20th Century
  • Fanny C. Mendenhall, aged 63, who immigrated to the United States, in 1903
  • Grace Mendenhall, aged 26, who settled in America, in 1903
  • H.G. Mendenhall, who landed in America, in 1904
  • Joshua Mendenhall, who landed in America, in 1905
  • Stella Mendenhall, who immigrated to the United States, in 1905
  • ... (More are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)

Contemporary Notables of the name Mendenhall (post 1700) +

  • George Emery Mendenhall (1916-2016), American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan
  • Murray Mendenhall Jr. (1925-2014), American professional basketball player and coach
  • Sammi Mendenhall (b. 1968), American Casting Director, Writer, and Producer
  • Dorothy Mabel Reed Mendenhall (1874-1964), well known American pediatrician
  • Mathew W. Mendenhall (b. 1957), former American football defensive end
  • Ken E. Mendenhall (b. 1948), former American football center
  • Joseph A. Mendenhall (b. 1920), U.S. State Department official
  • Thomas Corwin Mendenhall (1841-1924), autodidact American physicist and meteorologist
  • David Mendenhall (b. 1971), American actor and former child actor
  • Rashard Jamal Mendenhall (b. 1987), American football running back


Suggested Readings for the name Mendenhall +

  • Ancestors and Descendants of Jacob H. Mendenhall and his Wife Hannah W. Newlin by Lillian Mendenhall Powell Jacobs.
  • The Mendenhalls: a Genealogy by Henry Hart Beeson.

  1. Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
  2. "What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
  3. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)


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