Family name origins & meanings
- English : topographic name for someone living by a knoll or hilltop, from Middle English knelle (Old English cnyll(e), cnell(e), a derivative of Old English cnoll), or a habitational name from a minor place named with this word, for example Knell or Knelle in Sussex.
- South German : from Middle High German knellen ‘to cause to explode’, ‘to snap one’s fingers’, hence a nickname for a noisy, loud-mouthed person, or in Swabia and Bavaria for someone who cursed a lot.