Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : topographic name for someone who lived on a corner of land in the country or a street corner in a town or city, from Middle High German winkel, German Winkel ‘corner’. In time this word also came to denote a corner shop (see Winkelmann). This surname is also established in Denmark, Sweden, and elsewhere in central Europe.
  • German : habitational name from any of various places named Winkel.
  • Dutch and Belgian (van (der) Winkel, van den Winkel) : habitational name from any of numerous minor places named with winkel ‘corner’, for example Ten Winkel in many provinces of Belgium and the Netherlands, or either of two places called Oostwinkel, in East and West Flanders.