Kimball
An English surname from an old personal name meaning roughly “royal bold one,” later also attached to places in England.
The #1,544 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 13,255 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Kimball is generally traced to the Old English personal name Cynebeald, built from cyne- meaning “royal” and beald meaning “bold” or “brave.” Over time the name was reduced and reshaped in medieval and modern English spelling, producing forms such as Kimball, Kemble, Kimber, and Kimbell. In some cases it may also have been strengthened or influenced by local surnames from places called Kimble, so the surname can be both personal-name based and locational in feel.
History
The surname appears in medieval English records in several spellings, and later became especially familiar in American usage. 19th-century surname scholars often grouped Kimball with Kimber and Kemble as related developments from the same Old English name. The surname also survives as a place-linked form in some families, especially where the old Buckinghamshire name Kimble is in the background.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname books often explained Kimball as a descendant of the Anglo-Saxon name Cynebeald, the same source behind the related surname Kemble.
From the historical record
“1654-5. Married— Hmry Finch and Margrett Kimball; St. Dioni* Back- ' ^-"^illiwn Kiaibal and Joanna Kckett : St Gm. Chap. Mayfair. p. 198.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances