Family name origins & meanings
- German and Swiss German (also Knöbel) : from Middle High German knübel, probably a nickname in the sense ‘ankle’. However, the term also denotes a rounded elevation and may therefore also be a topographic name for someone who lived by a knoll.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Knobel ‘knot’, ‘node’.
- Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) : from Yiddish knobl ‘garlic’.