Keel
surname · Latin script
Meaning: from Keele (Staffordshire), or East/West Keal (Lincolnshire); first attested Richard Kele 1246 FFY
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈkiɫ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Keel is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Belize it is the 50th most common surname.
- USUnited States1 in 38K(measured from records)
- CACanada≈1 in 46K
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 47K
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.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 346 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 7.4K (inferred from the name graph)
8,682 people, 2010
Highest-authority source
Belize, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from Keele (Staffordshire), or East/West Keal (Lincolnshire); first attested Richard Kele 1246 FFY
Sources 1
- A Dictionary of English Surnames
Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Keel 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 8,682 | 1 in 38K | 8.7K | Keel | 346 |
| GH Ghana | #961 | ≈2,200 est. | ≈1 in 13K | — | Keel | 5 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 47K | — | Keel | 110 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 879 | 1 in 9.6K | 879 | Keel | 40 |
| CA Canada | — | ≈820 est. | ≈1 in 46K | — | Keel | 63 |
| IE Ireland | — | ≈260 est. | ≈1 in 20K | — | Keel | 4 |
| BZ Belize | #50 | ≈54 est. | ≈1 in 7.4K | — | Keel | 1 |
8,682 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. 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; BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames). 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)
Keel 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 English, habitational name from Keele in Staffordshire, named from Old English cy ‘cows’ + hyll ‘hill’, or from East and West Keal in Lincolnshire, which are named from Old Norse kjqlr ‘ridge’.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, A large beam along the underside of a ship’s hull from bow to stern.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, 4. Americanized spelling of German Kiihl (see Kuhl) or Kiehl, Kiel (see Kiel).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, probably a variant of Kehl
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, reduced form of McKeel.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
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)
- Kil Chaeb. 1353not in their usual nameKorean politician and philosopher (1353-1419)
- Howard Keelb. 1919USAmerican actor and singer (1919–2004)
- Gil Won-okb. 1928KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean activist (1928–2025)
- John Keelb. 1930USAmerican writer (1930-2009)
- Kil Yong-woob. 1954KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actor
- Kil Hae-yeonb. 1964KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actress
- Gil Young-ahb. 1970KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean badminton player
- Kil Eun-sungb. 1978KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actor
- Gil Eun-hyeb. 1988KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actress
- Gil Jung-woob. 2007KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actor
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 26 sources across 15 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 8.7K | #4,090 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 8.2K | #3,971 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 8K | #4,275 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 879 | #1,361 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
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 Keel mean, and where does it come from?
- from Keele (Staffordshire), or East/West Keal (Lincolnshire); first attested Richard Kele 1246 FFY Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
- How do you pronounce Keel?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈkiɫ/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Keel have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 8.7 thousand people named Keel, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled keel.
- How common is the name Keel?
- In the United States, the national register counted 8,682 people named Keel in 2010, about 1 in 38 thousand residents.
- How common is Keel compared with other names?
- In Belize, Keel is the 50th most common surname of 11,408 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Keel?
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/keelThe 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, “Keel” — the 50th most common surname in Belize. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.