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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English and French : from the word denoting the animal, Norman French came(i)l, Latin camelus, classical Greek kamēlos. The surname may have arisen from a nickname denoting a clumsy or ill-tempered person. It may also be a habitational name for someone who lived at a house with a sign depicting a camel.
  • English : from an assimilated pronunciation of Campbell.
  • English : possibly a habitational name from Queen Camel and West Camel in Somerset, Camel(le) in Domesday Book (1086), possibly a Celtic name from canto- ‘border’, ‘district’ and mēl ‘bare hill’.
  • Probably an Americanized spelling of Kamel.

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