Pagel
A surname with more than one origin, including a German pet-form of Paul/Pavel and a French dialect word for a rustic or mountain man.
The #6,697 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 61,223 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is not straightforwardly single-source. In German surname studies, Pagel is treated as a regional shortened or reshaped form of Paul, ultimately from Latin Paulus, with influence from Slavonic forms such as Pavel or Pawel. French source material also notes Pagel as a derivative of Page, and in Occitan dialect use it could mean a mountain dweller or rustic person.
History
The German explanation appears in records of northern German naming patterns, where short forms and sound-shifted variants were common. The French/Occitan explanation suggests independent surname formation in French-speaking areas, so Pagel may have arisen more than once. The modern distribution in the United States likely reflects later immigration from German- and possibly French-speaking regions.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century French etymologist glossed Occitan pagel as a 'mountain man' or rustic, showing how a surname can preserve a local nickname long after the original dialect sense faded.
From the historical record
“Wie das letzte Beispiel beweist, findet neben der Kürzung bisweilen Zerdehnung statt, indem zwischen zwei Vokale sich ein w oder g einschiebt. Dies ist auch der Fall bei Paul, woraus sich Pawel und Pagel entwickelt hat. Nicht selten gehen diese Kürzungen, Zusammenziehungen und Um- bildungen so weit, daß die…”
— Die deutschen Familiennamen