Kahl
surname · Latin script
Meaning: from calvus 'bald'; compare Kalb and Kalbe
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈkɑɫ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Kahl is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 7.5K(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 56K
- USUnited States1 in 64K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 332 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 7.5K (inferred from the name graph)
≈11,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from calvus 'bald'; compare Kalb and Kalbe
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Kahl 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.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #609 | ≈11,000 est. | ≈1 in 7.5K | — | Kahl | 164 |
| US United States | — | 5,215 | 1 in 64K | 5.2K | Kahl | 332 |
| EG Egypt | — | ≈930 est. | ≈1 in 112K | — | Kahl | 4 |
| IT Italy | — | ≈730 est. | ≈1 in 86K | — | Kahl | 8 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈720 est. | ≈1 in 92K | listed | Kahl | 61 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈460 est. | ≈1 in 56K | 1 | Kahl | 67 |
| AT Austria | — | ≈290 est. | ≈1 in 31K | — | Kahl | 27 |
| IE Ireland | — | ≈150 est. | ≈1 in 34K | — | Kahl | 4 |
| DK Denmark | — | 124 | 1 in 47K | 124 | Kahl | 34 |
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; the hanks-dictionary-surnames-1988 register; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts). 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 recorded senses(measured from records)
Kahl is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, bald, hairless
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In German, Personenname aus dem Merkmal 'kahl' = glatzköpfig, haarlos; Bearer count: 4712.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In German, nickname from Middle High German kal ‘bald’.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, bald (cogn. with OE calu, used of bare hilltops; see Cal¬ Var.: Kabelka. low i). Kabl'cek see Gabriel Vars.: Kahle, Kahler(t). Kahlandt see Kaland Kabisch see Jacob Kacev see Katzev
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
In gmw-ecg, throat
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Helmuth Kahlb. 1901DEmodern pentathlete (1901–1974)
- Milt Kahlb. 1909USAmerican animator (1909–1987)
- Harald Kahlb. 1941DEGerman politician
- Ernst Kahlb. 1949DEGerman cartoonist, painter, author and singer
- Daniel Kahlb. 1960USAmerican television personality
- Bruno Kahlb. 1962DEcivil servant and lawyer
- RP Kahlb. 1970DEGerman actor
- Oliver Kahlb. 1976DEscreenwriter
- Eric Kahlb. 2001SESwedish association football player
- Kal So-wonb. 2006KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actress
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)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 36 sources across 21 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 5.2K | #6,508 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 5.2K | #6,067 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 5K | #6,505 |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 124 | #4,401 |
| GB United Kingdom | A Dictionary of Surnames (Hanks & Hodges, 1988) | — | — | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Søndergaard, Georg, Danske efternavne (Lademann 1984/1991)
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 Kahl mean, and where does it come from?
- from calvus 'bald'; compare Kalb and Kalbe Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- What are other forms of the name Kahl?
- In the etymology graph, کل is a form of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Kahl?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈkɑɫ/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Kahl have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 11 thousand people named Kahl in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kahl.
- How common is the name Kahl?
- In the United States, the national register counted 5,215 people named Kahl in 2010, about 1 in 64 thousand residents.
- How common is Kahl compared with other names?
- In Germany, Kahl is the 609th most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Kahl?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/kahlThe 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, “Kahl” — the 609th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.