Vogel Family History

German, Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Middle High German, Middle Low German vogel, German Vogel ‘bird’, applied as a nickname for a happy person or someone who liked to sing, or a metonymic occupational name for a bird catcher.

As a Jewish name, it is mainly artificial. The surname of German origin is also found e.g. in Poland, Czechia, and Slovenia, where it was often applied as a translation into German of Slavic cognates like Czech Pták and Polish Ptak or Czech Ptáček (see Ptacek).

It is also found in France (Alsace and Lorraine). Compare Bird, Fogal, Fogel, and Fogle.

Germanized form (translation into German) of Sorbian Ptačk: nickname from an Upper Sorbian diminutive of ptak ‘bird’.

Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish female personal name Foygl, cognate with 1 above.