This surname, recorded in the spellings of Dangel, Dengel, Tenngel and Tengel, is of early German origins. It has two possible explanations. The first is as a developed form of the Hebrew name 'Daniel', a name introduced by the returning Crusaders from their expeditions to try to secure the freedom of the Holy Land in the 11th to the 13th centuries. Many such names were introduced at this time including such perennial popular forms as Michael, Thomas, James, Paul, etc. Usually these names were given to the sons of the Crusaders in memory of their fathers exploits, on probably his only journey away from his home village in his life. The second possible origin, which we favour on balance, is as a metonymic for a maker of iron objects, including knives, sickles, and even nails. The derivation is from 'tengel', the same surname appearing in England as 'Tingle', again a metonymic for a nail maker. Early examples of surname recordings taken from surviving German church registers include Hubertus Denckel of Guels, Rheinland, on July 22nd 1745, Heinrich Dengel, christened at Pfalz, Bayern, on October 5th 1777, and Adelheid Dengel, of Donakreis, Wuerttenburg, on August 11th 1851. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Conrad Tenngel, which was dated 1488, in the charters of Erolzheim, Germany, during the reign of Emperor Frederick 11, of the German Empire, 1440 - 1493. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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