Family name origins & meanings
- German : topographic name from Middle High German kobel ‘rock’, ‘gorge’.
- German : eastern German habitational name for someone from any of several places, mainly in Silesia, of Slavic origin, e.g. Kobel, Kobeln, Koblau, which are named from Slavic kobyla ‘mare’.
- German : from Kobel ‘laborer’s cottage’, ‘hut’, hence, by metonymy, a bondsman or serf.