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Surname Etymology and Meaning of HAMEL

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Name meanings and etymologies are often disputed. The information here is compiled from freely available sources, and no claims whatsoever are made for accuracy, either historical or etymological.

1. English, Scottish, and Irish: variant spelling of Hamill.
2. French: topographic name for someone who lived and worked at an outlying farm dependent on the main village, Old French hamel (a diminutive from a Germanic element cognate with Old English ham ‘homestead’).
3. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name from the city of Hamlin, German Hameln, Yiddish Haml, where the Hamel river empties into the Weser. The name of the river probably derives from the Germanic element ham ‘water meadow’.
4. Dutch: metonymic occupational name for a shepherd, from Middle Dutch hamel ‘wether’, ‘castrated ram’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (2003)