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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • North German (also Küsel) : nickname for a squat but agile person, from Middle Low German kusel ‘spinning top’.
  • South German : nickname from Middle High German kuose ‘female calf’ or ‘sheep’.
  • German : habitational name for someone from Kusel in Palatinate or Küsel near Magdeburg.
  • German : metonymic occupational name for someone who made or used sickles, from Sorbian kósa ‘sickle’.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from the Yiddish personal name kusl, a pet form of the Biblical name Yekuthiel.

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