Joel Anderson

(male) Biblical name, composed of two different Hebrew elements, Yah(weh) and El, both of which mean ‘God’ the implication of the name is that the Hebrew God, Yahweh, is the only true god. This is a common name in the Bible, being borne by, among others, one of King David's ‘mighty men’ (1 Chronicles 11:38), and a minor prophet who lived in the 8th century bc. The name has been perennially popular as a Jewish name; it was also taken up by the Puritans and other Christian fundamentalists. The name has long been in regular use in North America but was uncommon in Britain until the 1990s. Well-known bearers of the name include the American singer and entertainer Joel Grey (b. 1932), the West Indian cricketer Joel Garner (b. 1952), and the American film director Joel Coen (b. 1954). The French form Joël is also used in the English-speaking world.

Scottish and northern English: very common patronymic from the personal name Ander(s), a northern Middle English form of Andrew. See also Andreas. The frequency of the surname in Scotland is attributable, at least in part, to the fact that St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, so the personal name has long enjoyed great popularity there. Legend has it that the saint's relics were taken to Scotland in the 4th century by a certain St. Regulus. The surname was brought independently to North America by many different bearers and was particularly common among 18th-century Scotch-Irish settlers in PA and VA. In the United States, it has absorbed many cognate or likesounding names in other European languages, notably Swedish Andersson, Norwegian and Danish Andersen, but also Ukrainian Andreychyn, Hungarian Andrásfi, etc.