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Updated June 9, 2019

Girl name origins & meanings

  • Greek : Heavenly messenger

Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Dutch : from a short form of various Germanic personal names (see, for example, Engelbert and Engelhard). A number of different elements have fallen together in Engel-, mainly Ingal, extended form of Ing, the name of a Germanic god or folk hero, and Angel ‘Angle’. The Angles were a Germanic tribe living on the Jutland peninsula; in the 5th–6th centuries they invaded eastern and northern Britain and gave their name to England (Old English Englaland ‘land of the Angles’).
  • German and Dutch : in some cases a habitational name for someone living at a house bearing the sign of an angel, Middle High German engel.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Engel ‘angel’ (see 2).

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