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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : of uncertain origin. It may be a variant spelling of Keidel, a variant spelling of the unexplained Prussian name Keytel, or a derivative of the South German dialect word Geitel ‘duck’ (and so a metonymic occupational name for a rearer of ducks or possibly a nickname for someone thought to resemble a duck). Alternatively the name may be derived from the Langobardic word gaida ‘spike (of a lance)’.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : metonymic occupational name from Yiddish keytl ‘small chain’, ‘hook’.

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