Explore the Family Name Gehl

The meaning of Gehl

German: 1. from a short form of an old personal name formed with Middle High German geil ‘voluptuous, mischievous, rich’. 2. nickname for someone with blond hair or a pale complexion, from Middle Low German, Middle High German gel ‘yellow, blond’. 3. in eastern Germany, from a vernacular short form of the personal name Daniel.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Gehl in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Gehl has seen a slight decline between the years 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Gehl was ranked 19,079th in terms of its prevalence in the United States, but it fell to 20,216th place by 2010, indicating a decrease of about 5.96%. The number of people bearing the Gehl surname remained relatively stable, with only a slight decrease from 1,319 in 2000 to 1,318 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#19,079	#20,216	-5.96%
Count	1,319	1,318	-0.08%
Proportion per 100k	0.49	0.45	-8.16%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Gehl

The ethnic identity associated with the Gehl surname saw some shifts between 2000 and 2010, as per data from the Decennial U.S. Census. The majority of individuals with this last name identified themselves as White, although the proportion dropped slightly from 97.95% in 2000 to 96.28% in 2010. Those identifying as Hispanic or of two or more races saw an increase, with the latter growing by 102.22%. Additionally, there appeared to be a small emergence of Asian/Pacific Islander ethnicity among those with the Gehl surname in 2010, which was not present in the 2000 data. The proportion of those identifying as Black decreased to zero by 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.95%	96.28%	-1.7%
Hispanic	0.45%	1.21%	168.89%
Two or More Races	0.45%	0.91%	102.22%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.83%	0%
Black	0.61%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%