Markel
A surname most likely reduced from a Germanic personal name such as Markwart or Merkel.
The #8,023 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 74,829 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Markel is generally understood as a shortened or altered form of a Germanic personal name, especially Markwart or a related name such as Merkel. The old first element mark- is usually linked either to a word for a border or boundary, or in some later forms to the place-name sense of 'market.' In surname use, the name would originally have meant 'descendant of' or 'family of' the man with that personal name.
History
19th- and early-20th-century German surname writers regularly treated Markel as a clipped form of Markwart/Markert, and related it to other shortened surnames in German-speaking areas. The name is found in German and Swiss contexts, and later also appears in North America through immigration. Modern bearers in the U.S. may come from several different family lines, so the surname does not point to one single origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname studies place Markel in the same family of shortened German names as Merkel and Markert.
From the historical record
“Sell)y.— Local, 'of Selby,' a parish and markel-town in E. Rid. Yorks. WiLliamdeSelebY, co.YorkiiT]. A. Robert de Selby. tariir, i^ Edw. I :”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances