Orwell

Orwell is a surname of English origin and the name of several places in the United Kingdom. It is most widely recognized as the surname of George Orwell, the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (1903–1950).

Orwell is toponymic; there are places named Orwell in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, and it is also the name of the River Orwell in East Anglia. The exact origins of the surname are not definitively established, but it likely derives from English place-name elements associated with water features.

George Orwell is the best-known bearer of the name. He published under the pseudonym George Orwell from the early 1930s onward, and his literary reputation rests primarily on Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). His works are noted for their critical examinations of totalitarianism, language, and power, and they have had a lasting influence on modern political and literary discourse.

In broader usage, Orwell appears in discussions of literature, biography, and place-name studies. The name’s prominence is predominantly associated with the writer, though it remains a legitimate surname and toponym in its own right.