Where the Cole name comes from

Cole is an English surname of Middle English origin, though it reached its present form along several unrelated roads. The oldest is a nickname from the Old English word col, meaning coal, given for a strikingly dark, coal-like appearance. It also arose as a patronymic from Nicholas, the same root that produced Coles, Colson and Colle. In other families it is a variation of Cowell, a name that itself has several origins.

As an Irish and Scottish Gaelic surname it is a variant of McCool. In America it absorbed immigrant names as well: the German Kohl, the Dutch Kool, and the French Charbonneau, the last translated outright into the coal sense. The surname has since crossed back into use as a given name, partly as a diminutive of Nicholas.