Family name origins & meanings
- North German : habitational name for someone from a place in Westphalia called Gockeln. According to Bahlow, the place name is derived from gok, an obsolete word for a bog.
- South German : from Middle High German gogel ‘cheerful’, ‘lively’, either a nickname for someone with a cheerful disposition or an occupational name for an entertainer (modern German Gaukler).
- South German : nickname from a regional term gockel ‘rooster’.