Gäbel

surname · Latin script

/ɡɛbl̩/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Gäbel is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. Recorded meaning: metonymic occupational name for a maker and seller of forks, from Middle High German gabel(e), German Gabel ‘fork’.

rarermore common
  • DEGermany≈1 in 21K(inferred from the name graph)
  • USUnited States1 in 46K
  • CACanada≈1 in 53K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Gäbel itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈43,000 people, est.

2 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
338 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 21K (inferred from the name graph)

Germany, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

GäbelLatin(measured from records)
กาเบลThai(measured from records)

3 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Gabel in US United States, DE Germany, CA Canada and 3 more and Gaebel in BS Bahamas.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

metonymic occupational name for a maker and seller of forks, from Middle High German gabel(e), German Gabel ‘fork’. The reference is to any of the various pieces of agricultural equipment denoted by this word, for example hay forks, shearlegs, etc. Table forks were not used in Germany for eating before the 16th century.

Sources 1

  • Dictionary of American Family Names

Attested across 20 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Gäbel counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Gäbel is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈43,000 est.≈1 in 33K—Gabel4
US United States—7,1771 in 46K7.2KGabel338
DE Germany—≈3,800 est.≈1 in 21K—Gabel114
FR France—≈740 est.≈1 in 92K92—4
CA Canada—≈710 est.≈1 in 53K—Gabel76
AT Austria—≈210 est.≈1 in 42K—Gabel13
SG Singapore—≈150 est.≈1 in 41K—Gabel3
BS Bahamas#441≈14 est.≈1 in 23K—Gaebel1

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Gäbel is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Gabel

  • Portuguese surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Portugal, United Kingdom

    Also written Gabel

  • Indonesian surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Malaysia, India

    Also written Gabel

  • Croatian surname8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Serbia, Croatia, India

    Languages: Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian

    Also written Gabel, Gábel

  • Russian surname13 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, United States

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian

    Also written Габель, Габел, Gabel, Габёл, Gabel'

  • French surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Canada, Belgium

    Also written Gabel, Gabël

2 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1850190019502000Otto Gäbel, b. 1885Tom Gaebel, b. 1975Colin Gäbel, b. 1976Denis Gäbel, b. 1979
  • Otto Gäbelb. 1885DEGerman politician and bookbinder (1885-1953)
  • Tom Gaebelb. 1975DEnot in their usual nameGerman musician
  • Colin Gäbelb. 1976DEGerman television presenter
  • Denis Gäbelb. 1979DEGerman jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalSehr geehrte Damen und Herren,Dear Gäbel, (English)
InformalSehr geehrte Damen und Herren,Hello, (English)

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 6 sources across 2 countries.

Reference works 3

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Gäbel mean, and where does it come from?
metonymic occupational name for a maker and seller of forks, from Middle High German gabel(e), German Gabel ‘fork’. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
How do you pronounce Gäbel?
A machine transcription gives /ɡɛbl̩/ (IPA) for German.
In which country does Gäbel have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 43 thousand people named Gäbel in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled gabel.
How common is the name Gäbel?
In the United States, the national register counted 7,177 people named Gäbel in 2010, about 1 in 46 thousand residents.
How common is Gäbel compared with other names?
In the Bahamas, Gäbel is the 441st most common surname of 3,175 surnames recorded there.

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/g%C3%A4bel

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Gäbel” — the 441st most common surname in Bahamas. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Gäbel parses inside a full name →