A Gaelic name: Caimbeul, Middle Gaelic Cambel (1467 MS.), Cambell (1266, etc.), from cambil, wry-mouthed (càm and beul; see Cameron). There is no De Cambel in the numerous early references, but De Campo-bello appears in 1320 as a Latin form and an etymology; this, however, should naturally be De Bello-campo as Norman-French idiom and Latin demand - a form we have in Beau-champ and Beecham. De Campello or De Campellis (little plain) has been suggested; but unfortunately for these derivations the earliest forms show no de: Cambell was an epithet, not a place-name.

— Etymology of The Principal Gaelic National Names, Personal Names, Surnames (1909) by Alexander MacBain