Kyle

Where the name comes from

• Scottish (from Scottish Gaelic)
  narrow strait or channel
  Gaelic caol, 'narrow; a strait'
  Kyle began as a Scottish place-name and surname. In Scots, a kyle is a strait or a narrow arm of the sea. The word appears in place-names like the Kyles of Bute and the Kyle of Lochalsh. It comes from the Gaelic caol, which means 'narrow' as an adjective and 'a strait' as a noun. Several Scottish places called Kyle were named with this word. Families from those places took Kyle as their surname, and the surname later became a first name.
• Scottish (district name in Ayrshire)
  Origin uncertain
  possibly from the name of Coel Hen, a legendary British ruler
  Some Kyle families take their name from Kyle, a historic district in Ayrshire in southwest Scotland. Experts disagree about where the district got its name. One major surname dictionary says it was named for the British rulers called Coel Hen, about 1,500 years ago. Another major reference says the name comes from the same 'narrow strait' word. So the meaning of the Ayrshire district's name is uncertain.

Kyle across traditions

• Scottish. The word kyle is still used for sea straits on Scotland's west coast. Kyle was also the name of a historic district in Ayrshire. Kyle is a Scottish family name that was carried to North America.
• American. In the US, Kyle went from a surname to a popular boy's name. It ranked #86 for boys born in the 1970s and #24 for boys born in the 1990s. It was used now and then for girls, but mostly it is a boy's name.

Who carried it

• Coel Hen (about 1,500 years ago (legendary)): A British ruler of legend. According to one tradition, the Ayrshire district of Kyle was named for him.
• Kyle Rote (1928–2002): American football star with the New York Giants. He helped make Kyle known as a first name in the US.
• Kyle Rote Jr. (born 1950): American soccer player and son of Kyle Rote.

Forms in other languages

Kile, Cyle, Kyles (related surname)

Kyle in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.