This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Kettle.' Ketel, Ketil, Cytel, or Chetel, the sacrificial cauldron of northern mythology. A large number of surnames are founded on Kettle and its compounds; v. Chettle, Oskettle, Arkettle, Grimkettle, Steinkettle, Wulfkettle; also their abbreviations, such as Kell and Chell, Oskell, Arkell, Thurkle, &c.

Ketil, son of Tostig: Freeman, Norman Conq.

The father of William of Lancaster, baron of Kendel, was Gilbert, the son of Ketelt the son of Eldred, the son of Ivo de Taillebois (of Domesday): West's Ant. of Fumess.

'Alan, son of Ketell, gave one-half of Kinemund.' Revenues of the Priory of Contshead: ibid.

Emma fil. Ketel, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Kettle le Mercer, Cambridgeshire ibid.

Reyner Ketel, Norfolk, ibid.

Robert fil. Retell. Placitorum in domo capitulari Westmonasteriensi.

Willelmus Ketyll, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Thomas Ketill, 1370: ibid.

1582-3. Edmund Kettle, or Kettell, Worcestershire, Register of the University of Oxford.

1583. Christopher Kettell, Hertfordshire.: ibid.

1612. Robert Vincent and Alice Kettle: Marriage Lic. (London).

1700. Baptised — Deborah, d. Henry Kettle: St. James, Clerkenwell.

Ketill is an ON. personal name (Old West Scandinavian Ketill, Old Danish, Ketil), and until recently was one of the four commonest surnames in Iceland. The surname Kettle though not so common as it once was in Fife is still met with there. "Kettles were weavers at Muthill, Perthshire, and gun-makers at Doune in the same county" in the eighteenth century (Sc. Ant., IV, p. 113). The name of the gun-makers is spelled Kettell and Caddell, and they were probably relations of the Kettells, weavers in Muthill (ibid., VIII, p. 187). Ketell de Perth was burgess there in the reign of Alexander II (Scon, p. 62). James filius Ketel witnessed a composition between the Priory of May and Duncan de Inchesireth (now Inchyra), c. 1250 (May, 38). Gelis Kettill appears in parish of Nesting, Shetland, 1576 (Oppressions, p. 21), and James Kettle in Noorhead of Cultmalindie, 1689 (Dunkeld).

(Scandinavian) (Sacrificial) Cauldron [Old Norse Ketill] The Old Norse Ketill was Anglo-Saxonized as Cytel. Ketel and Chitel occur in Domes­day Book.

Adam son Ketel.—Lanc. Assize-Rolls, A.D. 1246.

Emma son Ketel.—Hund. Rolls, A.D. 1274.

Ketel is the chief modern Norwegian form, with the variants Kjetel, Kitel.

Mac Coitil Coitil is from a Norse personal name. Kettle is on record in Cos. Louth and Dublin since the early fourteenth century. SIF 96

Both of these names are Coitil in Irish, Kettle being Mac Coitil and Cottle Ó Coitil. The former belongs the counties north of Dublin: as MacKetyll it was in Louth in the second half of the sixteenth century and as far back as 1305 Thomas Ketyl was bishop-elect of Down. Cottle is now very rare: it originated as a sept of the Ui Fiachra and is perpetuated in the placename Cottlestown in the parish of Castleconnor in the north-west of Co. Sligo. A few Cottle families are extant in Connacht.

Professor Thomas Michael Kettle (1880-1916) was one of the brilliant young Irishmen who, following the lead of the Redmonds, was killed in action in the First World War.

It should be observed that both these names are also English, Kettle being derived from Old-Norse ketill and Cottle from Old-French cotel.

Place name in Fifeshire, Scotland.

(Icelandic) Descendant of Ketill (cauldron).

1. A parish in Fifeshire. 2. The personal name Chetell occurring in Domesday; in H.R. Ketel, Ketyl.

Local. From the parish of Kettle, in Fifeshire, Scotland.

From Kettle co. Fife. There are however the surnames Kettel, Ketell, and Kittle. Chetell occurs as a surname in Domesday; and in H.R. are found Ketel and Ketyl; and in old writings Catul or Katel.

Contracted from Mac-ás-Ketilll. Ketill is equivalent to the English ‘kettle'. In the Icelandic poets of the tenth century the uncontracted form was used, but in the eleventh it began to be contracted into kel. Its frequent occurrence in nomenclature doubtless arises from the use of the Vé-kell, or 'Holy Kettle, ' at sacrifices. Cumming reads ‘OSKETIL', and Worsaae ‘Asketill, ' on the fragment of a cross now in Castle Rushen.

Askell, is found in the Flateyjarbóc; Oscytyl was Abbot of Croyland in a.d. 992, and Askel King of Dublin in a.d. 1159. In 1311 and 1312 King Edward III. addressed letters to Gilbert Macaskel, or Mackaskill, 'Keeper of his Land of Man'. Asketil, Askell, Asketel (found in the Hundred Rolls).

It is now hardly found anywhere, though formerly common in Bride, to which parish it was almost confined.

Anscher and William Ketel, Normandy, 1198 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae); Geoffry Fitz-Ketel, Engl. 1199 (Rotuli Curiae Regis); Geoffry, Henry, Roger Ketel, Ib. c. 1272 (Rotuli Hundredorum).