Gabel Family History
Gabel Name Meaning
German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): metonymic occupational name for a maker and seller of forks from Middle High German gabel(e) German Gabel ‘fork’. The reference is to any of the various pieces of agricultural equipment denoted by this word for example hay forks shearlegs etc. Table forks were not used in Germany for eating before the 16th century. German: topographic name for someone who lived near a fork in a road or river or owned a forked piece of land from the German word (see 1 above) in this transferred sense. German: habitational name from any of the places called Gabel in Germany in Schleswig Thuringia Silesia and in particular in Bohemia which derive their name from Slavic jablo ‘apple tree’. German: from a short form of Gabriel . German (Gäbel): see Gaebel .
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022