Keble History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Etymology of Keble

What does the name Keble mean?

The name Keble is from the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name was given to a person who was a person who made or sold cudgels, which were short, stout sticks used as weapons. The surname Keble was also applied as a nickname to a person who was considered as stout and heavy. 1

Another source disagrees with this theory. Bardsley believes that the "surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Kibble,' i.e. Cuboid. A strong confirmation of the view that Kibbel was an old personal name is the existence of such local names as Kibblethwaite, Kibbleworth, Kibblestone, Cobbledick." 2

Early Origins of the Keble family

The surname Keble was first found in Suffolk where Æluric Chebbel was found c. 1095. While the name does not appear in the Domesday Book of 1086, it would be safe to assume that the Keble family were indeed there at that time.

Later, William Kebbel was found in the Curia Regis Rolls for 1214 and in 1263 Salomon Kebbel was found in the Feet of Fines for Essex in 1263.

The Hundredorum Rolls of 11273 included entries for a wide variety of spellings: Michael Kibbel, Huntingdonshire; William Kibbel, Cambridgeshire; Thomas Kibel, Lincolnshire; Reginald Kibel, Lincolnshire; and Stephen Cubbel, Oxfordshire. 2

"From the 15th to the 17th century, Keeble, in the forms often of Keble, Kebill, and Kebyll, was a common name amongst the gentry and tradesmen of Stowmarket [Suffolk]. Keeble is still a Stowmarket name. In the 13th century, Kibel, Kibbel, and Kebbel were names found in the adjacent counties of Cambridge and Hunts, as well as in those of Lincoln and Oxford. There are Kibbles now in Bucks and Warwickshire." 3

Early History of the Keble family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Keble research. Another 159 words (11 lines of text) covering the years 1120, 1510, 1523, 1607, 1632, 1644, 1649, 1650, 1654, 1686, 1710, 1711, 1786, 1792, 1806, 1807, 1809 and 1866 are included under the topic Early Keble History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Keble Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Keble family name include Keeble, Keble, Kebbell, Kebell, Kebill, Kebyll, Kibbel, Kibble, Kibel, Keebler and many more.

Early Notables of the Keble family

Notables of this surname at this time include:

Richard Keble, Keeble or Kebbel (fl. 1650), English judge an old family settled at Newton in Suffolk. He was Commissioner of the Great Seal from 1649 to 1654
His youngest son Joseph Keble (1632-1710), was a barrister and essayist, born in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, London, in 1632. 4
John Keble (1792-1866), achieved a great deal prominence as a clergyman

Keble migration to the United States +

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Investigation of the origins of family names on the North American continent has revealed that early immigrants bearing the name Keble or a variant listed above:

Keble Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

John Keble, who arrived in America in 1620 5

Keble Settlers in United States in the 18th Century

Jacob Keble, who landed in Pennsylvania in 1750 5

Contemporary Notables of the name Keble (post 1700) +

John Keble (1792-1866), English divine and poet, born at Fairford, Gloucestershire, on 25 April 1792 where his father, also John Keble, was vicar of Coln St. Aldwins, a neighbouring village, but resided at Fairford in a house of his own 6
Edward Keble Chatterton (1878-1944), English maritime and naval writer who wrote over 100 books, pamphlets and magazine articles on the subject

Citations +

Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Guppy, Henry Brougham, Homes of Family Names in Great Britain. 1890. Print.
Smith, George (ed), Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1885-1900. Print
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
Wikisource contributors. "Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900." Wikisource . Wikisource , 4 Jun. 2018. Web. 26 October 2020