Kraal
surname · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Kraal is a surname written in the Latin script, most frequently recorded in the United States. In English, recorded as In Central and Southern Africa, a small rural community.
- NLNetherlands
- ZASouth Africa
- AUAustralia
Where the name is found, darker where our sources hold more of it. No national register counts its bearers anywhere we hold data, so the map carries no figures. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from Middle Dutch craie ‘crow’, hence a nickname for someone thought to resemble a crow, such as chattering or having a raucous voice. Compare English Crow.
Sources 1
- Dictionary of American Family Names
Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.
How Kraal is read(measured from records)
Kraal is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English61%
In Central and Southern Africa, a small rural community.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Dutch21%
from Middle Dutch craie ‘crow’, hence a nickname for someone thought to resemble a crow, such as chattering or having a raucous voice. Compare English Crow.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
a bead (of a necklace or abacus)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Recorded in:
No national register we accept counts this name’s bearers, so the page lists where it is found and publishes no figure.
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)
Kraal is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Khmer, to spread, cover, pave, pS HSfdJ unroll (mats); to be spread out, paved. (O.K» krai.) Ex, : This street is the veloping, paved (with concrete, asphalt, stone, etc.). [fTlQJfiCSriJ to spread out a mat. [fnCUnnCU to put a cover on. [nU3 squeaking. [fnClJ
as a wordHeadley, Cambodian-English Dictionary, Volume I (ក-ភ)
In German, kraal (round African village or cattle pen)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Afrikaans, A kraal, corral: enclosure for livestock
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)
- Adrianus Kraalb. 1915NLDutch university teacher (1915-1989)
- Steven KraalNLEntrepreneur from the Netherlands
- Peter KraalNLresearcher 0000-0002-6650-5680
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 9 sources across 4 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 594 | #3,177 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 113 | #147,221 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 109 | #150,452 |
| BE Belgium | Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register) | 2008 | 5 | #106,098 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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
- Where does the name Kraal come from?
- from Middle Dutch craie ‘crow’, hence a nickname for someone thought to resemble a crow, such as chattering or having a raucous voice. Compare English Crow. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
- What does the name Kraal mean?
- In English, In Central and Southern Africa, a small rural community.
- In which country does Kraal have the most bearers?
- Kraal is most frequently recorded in the United States.
What do you want to know about Kraal?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/kraalThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 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, “Kraal”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.