[Oratam]

Mother of Bill Gates was named MAXWELL. From a *banking* family. Her grandfather, James Willard Maxwell (1864–1951), was president of the National City Bank in Seattle from 1911 to 1929 and a director of the Seattle branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Connection to G. Maxwell

Robert Maxwell was born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch on June 10, 1923 in Czechoslovakia.

It's possible there is a connection to explain the choice of Maxwell as a new surname but I think it is doubtful that Czech refugee in post-WW2 Britain would be linked to banker in pre-war Seattle.

[generally]

Hmmm. Makes sense.

Thank you!

[Cats Pajamas]

Maxwell

surname, later masc. proper name, attested from late 12c., from Maxwell, name of a town on the River Tweed on the Scottish borders (the name is probably “the well of Macc or Macca”). In physics, usually a reference to James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), as in Maxwell’s demon (1879; as Maxwell’s “intelligent demons” from 1874).

The definition of a “demon,” according to the use of this word by Maxwell, is an intelligent being endowed with free will, and fine enough tactile and perceptive organisation to give him the faculty of observing and influencing individual molecules of matter. [”Nature,” April 9, 1874]