Last name RACHEL: origin and meaning

Publish date: 2024-05-06

Rachel : 1: German (mainly Bavaria): probably a topographic name from Middle High German rach ‘rough steep’.2: German: habitational name from a place called Rachel in Bohemia.3: Sorbian: from an Upper Sorbian derivative (originally also spelled Rachol) of the personal name Rach.4: French: from the female Biblical name Rachel meaning ‘ewe’ in Hebrew. In the Bible (Genesis 28–35) Rachel is the wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin.5: English: habitational name from an unidentified place.6: English: perhaps sometimes from the Middle English and Biblical personal name Rachel (see 4 above) which is absent in England before the Reformation. Whatever its origin the surname has sometimes been influenced by the Hebrew name; it is otherwise unexplained.

Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
FANBI : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain, ©2021, University of the West of England
FANBI : The Oxford Dictionary if Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ©2016, University of the West of England

ncG1vNJzZmidnmO0prrEmqWerF6kv6h70q6pp5mdmsBwnsCcn56k