Frequency: (390)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. North German: topographic name for someone who lived by or owned a piece of land by the Ihle River, a tributary of the Elbe northeast of Magdeburg.
2. Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads in southeastern Norway named Ile, from Old Norse íla ‘well’, ‘spring’.
GIVEN NAMES: German 7%. Hans (2), Franz, Fritz, Hedwig, Horst, Jochen, Jurgen, Karlheinz, Kurt.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
