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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Ukrainian, Belorussian, Czech, Slovenian, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) : from Slavic kozel ‘buck’, ‘billy goat’, hence a nickname for someone thought to resemble a buck or a goat, or else a metonymic occupational name for a goatherd.
  • Americanized form of Slovenian Koželj or Kožel, a nickname or occupational name from koželj ‘upper part of a spindle’ (part of a spinning wheel).

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