Early genealogists traced the Russel/Russell family of Kingston Russel from Anglo-Norman landholders bearing the toponymic surname 'de Rosel' or 'du Rozel', deriving from Rosel, Calvados, Normandy (not, as has also been claimed, Le Rozel, Manche).
[2] However, J. Horace Round observed that these flawed pedigrees erroneously linked toponymic-bearing men with unrelated men who instead bore the Anglo-Norman nickname rus[s]el (represented in contemporary Latin documents as Rosellus), given to men with red hair.
[2] This nickname was a diminutive of the Norman-French rus (Old French ros, Modern French roux[3]), meaning 'red', and was also an archaic name for the red fox,[4] which in turn borrowed from Old Norse rossel, "red-haired", from Old Norse ros "red hair color" and the suffix -el.
Dictionaries also state that the English name Rufus originally meant "red haired".
[4][5] People with surname Russell include: