Family name origins & meanings
- German : from the personal name Giesel, a short form of any of several Germanic personal names with the first element gīsil ‘pledge’, ‘hostage’, ‘noble offspring’. In ancient and medieval Germanic society, the younger children of kings and princes were sometimes sent to be brought up at the court of a neighboring ruler, as a pledge of peace between the two nations or clans. Thus, the male personal name Gisil and its feminine equivalent Gisela mean both ‘pledge’ and ‘noble offspring’.