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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : topographic name for someone living by a knoll or hilltop, from Middle English knelle (Old English cnyll(e), cnell(e), a derivative of Old English cnoll), or a habitational name from a minor place named with this word, for example Knell or Knelle in Sussex.
  • South German : from Middle High German knellen ‘to cause to explode’, ‘to snap one’s fingers’, hence a nickname for a noisy, loud-mouthed person, or in Swabia and Bavaria for someone who cursed a lot.

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