Ketel

surname · Latin script

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

Ketel is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Netherlands than in any other country. Recorded meaning: kettle, cauldron (a pot used to boil water).

rarermore common
  • USUnited States1 in 2.3M(measured from records)
  • NLNetherlands1 in 54K
  • DEGermany≈1 in 593K

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.

Netherlands (measured from records)

319 people, 2007

Sources
104 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 54K (inferred from the name graph)

Netherlands

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

kettle, cauldron (a pot used to boil water)

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Ketel 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 Ketel is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
NL Netherlands3191 in 54K319Ketel23
US United States1461 in 2.3M158Ketel104
DE Germany≈140 est.≈1 in 593K—Ketel38
ZA South Africa≈69 est.≈1 in 822K—Ketel6
CA Canada≈35 est.≈1 in 1.1M—Ketel26
NZ New Zealand≈6 est.≈1 in 859K—Ketel6

319 people counted by CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007), 2007. 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; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007). 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)

Ketel is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • French surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Netherlands, United States

    Also written Kétel

29 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.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Ketel is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In enm, A pot used to boil food in; a kettle.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Estonian, adessive plural of kesi

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In tbk, to itch (as scabies)

    as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

  • In agn, strength; vigor

    as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

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)

15001600170018001900Cornelis Ketel, b. 1548Richard Ketel, b. 1670Pieter Ketel, b. 1824Pieternella Ketel, b. 1890

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 15 sources across 9 countries.

Official registers attesting Ketel
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
NL NetherlandsCBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007)2007319#6,404
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020158#116,774
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010146#118,853
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000121#129,619
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 3

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia given-name 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 Ketel mean, and where does it come from?
kettle, cauldron (a pot used to boil water) Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
In which country does Ketel have the most bearers?
In the Netherlands, the national register counted about 319 people named Ketel, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled ketel.
Where is Ketel most common?
Ketel is densest in the Netherlands, where the national register counts about 1 in 54 thousand people carrying it.
How common is the name Ketel?
In the Netherlands, the national register counted 319 people named Ketel in 2007, about 1 in 54 thousand residents.

What do you want to know about Ketel?

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

The same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.

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, “Ketel”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Ketel parses inside a full name →