Meckel

    The German family name Meckel is classified as being of personal name origin.  When a name is derived from a personal name it is usually the name of the bearer's father or mother which is adopted and transformed into a fixed hereditary family name.  This name is then proudly transmitted from generation to generation, occasionally altered orthographically or abbreviated providing a link between the living bearer of the surname and the original bearer of the eponymous personal name from which the surname derives its origin.  In this instance, the name indicates that this family is descended from the one named Meckel, a pet form of the old German personal name Mago, which in turn is a short form of personal names that are based on the Old High German terms "magan" meaning "to be capable of something" or "mag" meaning "blood relative" such as Magwart or Magvald.  Variants of the surname Meckel include Meckelin, Meck, Mecke and Mackel.

    One of the earliest references to this name  or to a variant is a record of one Joh. Meckelin, who was documented in Offenburg in 1374, however research is of course ongoing and this name may have been documented even earlier than the date indicated above.  Notable bearers of the surname Meckel include the theologian Johannes Meckel (1584-1647), the  physician Philipp Friedrich Theodor Meckel (1756-1803) and the cooper Bernhard Meckel, who was born in Geisenheim in Hesse in1829 and in the year 1852 emigrated to America.  He sailed to New Orleans, Louisiana and then traveled to Fredericksburg, Texas.  The name could of course have been first introduced to that country at an earlier date.