Kuhl
A German surname usually linked to a pit, hollow, or pool, and sometimes to a place-name built from that word.
The #5,877 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 52,579 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Kuhl is generally connected with the German and Low German word for a hollow, pit, or pool, the same root seen in forms like Kuhle and Lehmkuhl. In older German usage, this could describe a low-lying place, a clay pit, or a water-filled depression. Some dictionaries also treat it as a shortened surname form found in place-based family names.
History
The name appears in German surname lists alongside related forms such as Kuhle, Lehmkuhl, and Sandkuhl, which all point to landscape features or pits of one kind or another. It is most at home in northern and lowland German naming traditions. The spelling Kuhl can also be encountered as part of longer compound surnames and in variants with umlaut spellings such as Kühl, though the two are not always the same name historically.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname works explicitly gloss Kuhl as a word for a pit or hollow, showing how often German family names grew out of very local terrain terms.
From the historical record
“KRIJGSMAN (m.), Warrior, Soldier, (v. Kempe.) KUCHMEISTER ((g.), Head cook. (v. de Koch.) KUHL WETTER {(&.), Cool weather, (v. Schonwetter.) KUHN ((S.), Bold, Daring, (v. Balde and le Preux.) KUIPER (iD.), CowPER, Cooper, and Hooper, (Q^.), Cooper. L. LADRON (Sp.), Robber, (v. Rauber and de Roover.) LAIGUE, de…”
— Surnames