Kessel Family History

English: variant of Kestel. German: from Middle High German kezzel ‘kettle’, ‘cauldron’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of copper cooking vessels, or alternatively a topographic and habitational name, from the same word in the sense ‘(ring-shaped) hollow’. Dutch and Belgian: habitational name from any of the places so named in the Belgian provinces of Antwerp and Limburg or the Dutch province of North Brabant.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press