Kehl
surname · Latin script
Meaning: 1. habitational name from various places so named, notably the town across the Rhine from Strasbourg
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Kehl is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 18K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 132K
- CHSwitzerland1 in 9.4K
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
- 271 (measured from records)
- 1 in 9.4K (inferred from the name graph)
≈4,500 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Switzerland
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
1. habitational name from various places so named, notably the town across the Rhine from Strasbourg. 2. from Middle High German kel(e) ‘throat’, hence a nickname possibly for someone with a goiter or perhaps with a distinctively throaty voice. 3. variant of Kohl (see Kohl). 4. from a northern German field name of unknown etymology.
Sources 1
- Dictionary of American Family Names
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Kehl 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 | ≈4,500 est. | ≈1 in 18K | listed | Kehl | 130 |
| US United States | 2,514 | 1 in 132K | 2.5K | Kehl | 271 |
| BR Brazil | 1,944 | 1 in 109K | 1.9K | — | 3 |
| CH Switzerland | 897 | 1 in 9.4K | 897 | Kehl | 44 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈300 est. | ≈1 in 223K | listed | Kehl | 34 |
| LY Libya | ≈74 est. | ≈1 in 93K | — | Kehl | 1 |
| IS Iceland | ≈10 est. | ≈1 in 34K | listed | — | — |
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 dfa-band-5 register; IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); the hanks-dictionary-surnames-1988 register. 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)
Kehl 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, mity of the throat or neck, perhaps goitre, which was com¬ mon in the Alpine regions, from Ger. Kehle throat (MHG kel, OHG kela). 2. topographic name from the same word used in the sense of a narrow gorge or defile, or habitation name from one of the minor places named with this word.
as a nameA dictionary of surnames
In German, wohl entrundet zu Kohl; in der Diskussion auch als Wohnstätten-/Herkunftsname zu Kehl(e) 'Rinne, Hohlweg, Schlucht'; 1994 Belege.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In German, Berufsname/Übername zu 'Kohl'; wohl für Kohlanbauer/-händler oder als Beiname nach dem Gemüse. Beleg: 1994.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In German, from the place name Kehl in Baden
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
In pdc, 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)
- Hermann Kehlb. 1886DEGerman surgeon (1886–1967)
- Renato Ferraz Kehlb. 1889BRBrazilian physician, author and eugenetist
- Robert Kehlb. 1914CHSwiss judge (1914-2001)
- Fritz Kehlb. 1937CHSwiss footballer
- Johann Kehlb. 1942DEGerman politician
- Medard Kehlb. 1942DEGerman priest (1942–2021)
- Maria Rita Kehlb. 1951BRBrazilian writer, poet and literary critic
- Martin Kehlb. 1965DEGerman geographer
- Sebastian Kehlb. 1980DEGerman association football player
- Bryan Kehlb. 1984USAmerican football player (born 1984)
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 27 sources across 18 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 2.5K | #12,370 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 2.5K | #11,660 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 2.5K | #12,100 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 1.9K | #4,997 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 897 | #1,340 |
| DE Germany | Deutscher Familiennamenatlas Band 5 | — | — | — |
| 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 5
- 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
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
- Where does the name Kehl come from?
- 1. habitational name from various places so named, notably the town across the Rhine from Strasbourg. 2. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
- What does the name Kehl mean?
- Recorded meaning: 1. habitational name from various places so named, notably the town across the Rhine from Strasbourg.
- In which country does Kehl have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 4.5 thousand people named Kehl in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kehl.
- Where is Kehl most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Kehl is densest in Switzerland — about 1 in 9.4 thousand people — even though Germany holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Kehl?
- In the United States, the national register counted 2,514 people named Kehl in 2010, about 1 in 132 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Kehl?
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/kehlThe 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, “Kehl”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.