Kessel
Usually a German surname from the word for a cauldron, kettle, or basin-shaped vessel.
The #6,777 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 62,047 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Kessel is most often linked to German kessel, meaning a kettle, cauldron, or pot; in some regions the same word also referred to a basin or hollow. That makes it a likely occupational or descriptive name for someone connected with kettles, metalwork, cooking vessels, or a place-name built from the same word. The historical sources also show it used in compound surname forms such as Kesselring, Kesselhut, and related regional variants.
History
The word appears in German and Dutch surname traditions and is especially well attested in German naming patterns built from everyday household objects or tools. Some medieval references in the sources connect it with place-based lineages and noble families, but for most modern bearers the simpler word-origin explanation is the safest. In English-speaking countries it is now a relatively uncommon surname, though it remains established in German-heritage communities.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same root shows up in several old German surname types built from kitchen or household items, a surprisingly common source of family names.
From the historical record
“ancient stem of Des Ewes [des Eaux, the synonym of our English TCaf^rA'] dynasts or lords of the dition of Kessel in the duchy of Gelderland, who came first thence when that province was wasted with civil war, in the beginning of king Henry the Eighth." Fuller's Worlliies iii. 195.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom