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).