Kiel

German surname of several possible origins and meanings.

1. a locational surname for someone from the town of Kiel, in Lower Saxony Germany.
2. derived from Middle High German kil "quill", making Kiel an occupational surname denoting a scribe oder a secretary.
3. derived from Middle High German kil "leek; spring onion", making Kiel a nickname for a farmer.
4. derived from Middle Low German kil "ship's keel", making Kiel a nickname for a mariner or skipper, short for Low German Kilmester (Middle Low German kil ‘keel’, ‘boat’ + mester ‘master’, ‘skipper’).
5. derived from the Middle Low German word for "wedge", making Kiel a nickname for a ruffian, a brute.
6. a topographic name for someone living by a long narrow bay or area of sheltered water, from Middle Low German kil ‘wedge’, the word from which the city derives its name.
7. German from a pet form of the personal name Kilian.

From Middle Dutch kidel, kedel "smock", hence a metonymic occupational name for someone who make such garments or perhaps a nickname for someone who habitually wore one. Also a Dutch habitational name from a place so named in Antwerp or from the German city Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein.

Jewish (Ashkenazic) variant of Kil.

From Polish kieł "tooth, fang", hence a nickname for someone with bad or protruding teeth.