Mael is an old Celtic name from Ireland, Wales and Brittany. Nowadays this first name is popular in France.
The French masculine name of Breton origin meaning "chief, prince." It was popularized by a fifth-century saint Maël who lived in Wales.
It was also borne by Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill (975/976-1022), a High King of Ireland.
Both a boys name and a girls name, although it seems traditionally more used on boys. Its feminine form in Breton is Maela, but the modern French variant Maëlle is often preferred. In Welsh it is considered masculine.
In Wales, Mael is the legendary name of Roycol's son.
Maël was a fifth-century Breton saint who lived as a hermit in Wales. He was a follower of Cadfan from Brittany to Wales, ultimately to the Isle of Bardsey. His feast day is 13 May.
He is co-patron (with St Sulien) of Corwen in Wales, and of its parish church, part of the Anglican Communion Church in Wales.
As in the case of the Danes the Norwegians' earliest standards of measure can be derived from their ship burials. The 60-foot-long Kvalsund boat (18.29 m) was built ca. 700 AD and differs from the Danish boats less than it does from the Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune ships which all date from ca. 800 AD. Thwarts are typically spaced about 3 feet apart.
In 1541, an alen in Denmark and Norway was defined by law to be the Sjælland alen. Subsequently, the alen was defined by law as 2 Rhine feet from 1683. From 1824, the basic unit was defined as a fot being derived from astronomy as the length of a one-second pendulum times 12/38 at a latitude of 45°. The metric system was introduced in 1887.