[Surname] Shikhel'
Where does the last name Shikhel' come from? Found on a Russian social media in on a comment on a Russian language post. The bearer had a Russian first name. I'm not sure of the ethnicity. Spelled Шихель in Cyrillic. What language does it originate, and if it's Russified what was the original form? And what does it mean?
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The name appears to be Ukrainian.
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In Ukrainian it would probably be Shykhel' (still spelled Шихель in Cyrillic). The problem is the last name is so rare (according to forebears, 4 bearers with Shykhel' in Ukraine, and 29 in Russia and 14 in Belarus with Shikhel') so it's hard to tell. It could maybe be from German Schichel, another rare last name.
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There are the German surnames Schiechel and Schiechl, both derived from the word Schuh "shoe" with diminutive ending -l and unrounding of the resulting ü. Besides German, it can also be of Yiddish origin.See also (in German): Schmuck, Mirjam, Schiechel, in: Digitales Familiennamenwörterbuch Deutschlands,
URL: < http://www.namenforschung.net/id/name/48225/1 >
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It's probably a form of that, then.
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