Distel Family History

German, North German, and Dutch: topographic name for someone who lived by a patch of ground overgrown with thistles, or perhaps a nickname for a ‘prickly’ person, from Middle High German, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch distel ‘thistle’. Jewish (Ashkenazic): probably in most cases an unflattering name bestowed on Jews by non-Jewish government officials in 18th- and 19th-century central Europe.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press