Oliver James Padel (born 31 October 1948 in St Pancras, London, England) is an English medievalist and toponymist specializing in Welsh and Cornish studies.
Padel was born in 1948, the son of John Hunter Padel and his wife Hilda (née Barlow), daughter of Sir Alan Barlow, 2nd Baronet and his wife Nora, (née Darwin), through whom he is a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin.
He was educated at University College School, Hampstead, and Peterhouse, Cambridge, whence he graduated with a BA in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic in 1970.
In 1988–90 he had a temporary post in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (ASNaC) at Cambridge University while Patrick Sims-Williams was on research leave, followed by posts in the Department of History and Welsh History at the University of Aberystwyth and at the Cornwall Record Office.
[5] In 1994, he was appointed University Lecturer in Celtic Literature in ASNaC, replacing the former incumbent, Patrick Sims-Williams.