Family name origins & meanings
- North German (also Küsel) : nickname for a squat but agile person, from Middle Low German kusel ‘spinning top’.
- South German : nickname from Middle High German kuose ‘female calf’ or ‘sheep’.
- German : habitational name for someone from Kusel in Palatinate or Küsel near Magdeburg.
- German : metonymic occupational name for someone who made or used sickles, from Sorbian kósa ‘sickle’.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from the Yiddish personal name kusl, a pet form of the Biblical name Yekuthiel.