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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Dutch : topographic name for a person living near a chapel, from Middle High German kap(p)elle, kappel ‘chapel’. This is a loanword from Late Latin cap(p)ella, a diminutive of cappa ‘hooded cloak’, the first building to be so called having housed a cloak that reputedly belonged to St. Martin of Tours.
  • German and Dutch : habitational name from a place named with this word, of which there are many examples in northwestern Germany.
  • German (Käppel) : diminutive of Kapp.

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