Hamel

The name Hamel has three origins.
The surname Hamel has three separate origins. As a German and Ashkenazic Jewish surname it is ultimately derived from the Yiddish 'Haml', which is where the river Hamel enters the Wesel. Hamel is thought to be from the Germanic 'ham', meaning 'water meadow'. As a Dutch surname it comes the Middle Dutch 'hamel' meaning a castrated ram, and was used as a nickname for a shepherd. As a surname it is derived from an Old French word for an outlying farm.

topographic name for someone who lived and worked at an outlying farm dependent on the main village Old French hamel (a diminutive from an ancient Germanic element cognate with Old English hām "homestead"); or a habitational name from (Le) Hamel the name of several places in the northern part of France named with this word.