Pohl
A German surname most often meaning “pool” or “pond,” from a low-German word for standing water.
The #5,369 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 47,609 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Pohl is generally explained from a Low German word pohl, related to Dutch poel and High German Pfuhl, all meaning a pool, pond, or marshy waterhole. It was likely first used for someone who lived near such a place, or from a settlement or feature named for it. Some older writers also treated it as part of a wider family of short German names, but the place-and-water explanation is the clearest and most common.
History
The name is well attested in German-speaking areas and also appears in compounds such as Pohlmann, literally “pool man.” Historical surname collections from the 19th and early 20th centuries consistently list Pohl alongside similar North German forms. It is especially associated with northern German and Low German naming patterns.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Admiral von Pohl is a well-known historical bearer of the name, and older reference works gloss the surname simply as “Pool.”
From the historical record
“pinto, pintao] POHL (Ger.) Pool [L.Ger. pohl = Dut. poel = • (High) Ger. ^/«A0 POHLMANN (Ger.) Pool-Man [see Pohl] Eng. Poolman. ■ POIRIER (Fr.) Pear-Tree [f. Fr. poire, Lat. pir-um, a pear] POLLACK (Ger.) Polander [see Polaok in”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named Pohl
- Frederik Pohl (1919–2013)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.