Family name origins & meanings
- Muslim : from a personal name based on Arabic kāmil ‘perfect’, ‘complete’. Compare Kamal.
- German, Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from kamel ‘camel’ (Latin camelus, Greek kamēlos; cf. Hebrew gamal). This was a common house sign in central Europe in the later Middle Ages, and the surname generally denoted someone who lived in a house bearing this sign. It may also have been a nickname for an ill-tempered or clumsy person, or as a Jewish name it was probably ornamental.