Family name origins & meanings
- German : from Middle High German kabel ‘rope’, ‘cable’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a rope maker. The surname is found mainly in the North Sea ports.
- German : topographic name from Middle Low German kabel ‘lot field’. This alludes to the custom in North Rhine-Westphalia of alloting communally-owned plots of land to individual farmers by the drawing of lots.
- Czech and Slovak (Kabela) : nickname for a loud or boastful person, a big mouth, from kabela ‘satchel’, ‘leather bag’.