What is the etymology of the surname Shell?

Question:

What is the etymology of the surname Shell?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: It's common in many languages, but especially Germanic languages. It comes from the obvious English word for a shell. But it also is a habitational name for any number of towns throughout Europe. There are towns in England, Silesia, France, Spain, Italy, etc which have similar sounding names that were anglicized to the common English name "Shell" when people came to English-speaking countries.

Just as importantly, it's an anglicization of any number of Germanic and Russian names, such as Sheil, Schille, Schuler, etc. During WWI, a number of first and second-generation German-Americans didn't want to bear the stigma of a Germanic name. So they easily shortened them to something English-sounding. Even Sen. John Kerry's grandfather was guilty of that. He was a European Jew named Kohn. Distancing yourself from the "huddled masses" was much easier if your name sounded "normal".