Kilpela Family History

Finnish (Kilpelä): habitational name from farms so named from kilpi ‘shield’ also ‘water lily especially lily pad’ (the last sense is used particularly in the names of ponds and lakes and the names of dwellings near them).

Established as a hereditary surname in northern Finland where kilpi has the sense ‘the wide part of the elk or reindeer horn’ and in western Finland.