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Every couple of years I get reminded of this name and dig through Google in search of answers. I can find plenty of uses (all pre-war and Jewish so at least we know it was a Yiddish name) and various claims for its origins but never anything really verifiable.

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What I have so far is mostly in Polish because that's how I came across it first. And there are many variations of this name in Polish alone. There's Kejla, Kajla, Kejła, Kajła, Keila, Keile, Kiejla [1] and probably some other. My go to source for Yiddish spellings is "Names used by Polish Jews" by Jakub Rotwand*[2], which lists it as Kajla and provides the spelling קילא. A spelling with two yods (קיילא) also existed [3]. I've tried putting the whole word and its root into both Hebrew and Yiddish dictionaries and no leads came from it.

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To me, these variations in spelling and pronunciation in Polish point to this name cycling through Russian - not necessarily coming from there originally but I think the different spellings in Polish can be explained by different transcriptions from Russian. In cyrillic Keyla is Кейла. In Polish л is transcribed as either l or ł (because the sound itself actually isn't either, sometimes it sounds more like l to Polish ears and sometimes it sounds more like ł). Back then there weren't even any real rules for spelling native words so things got transcribed on an individual basis, hence both Kejla and Kejła. All Russian sites I managed to find and translate give the "vessel" origin for the name but I don't speak Russian so I can't really tell how much it's just sites copying off each other and how much they have any actual sources for this claim (and anyway it seems like the Yiddish word was spelled with כ which I haven't found used in the name.)[4]

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Recently I came across a book [5] which has an entry for "Kejla, Kejle Yiddish from Russian Kala, shortened form of Kaleria (: gr. kale ‘good, beautiful’)". Which sounds a bit suspicious to me but I did find Russian sites corroborating it giving as a possible source "Kalliroya (Callirhoe in English) (“beautifully flowing”), which was worn by one of the oceanids - the daughters of the titan Ocean in Greek mythology. The root "calle" in any variations is translated as "beautiful" (Calliope - "beautiful voice")." [6]

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The book also notes down the date of records when the name was found and so Kejla was in use since at least 1835-1849.

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I think, and this is just my musings, that it didn't come from one place. I think that it's a pretty universally appealing sound and so may have come from all the proposed sources independently or maybe sometimes influencing each other and playing off of each other. Maybe someone heard their mom mention an aunt Geila and thought "Keila huh? Kala means beautiful, what a great name". Or someone else thought "keyleh means vessel, what a lovely meaning for a child with potential!". I think the appeal of the sound makes it so much harder to pinpoint the one true origin.

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*Tangentially related, the many spellings of names in the past didn't miss the author of this book. He is now remembered as Jakub Rotwand but the text of the book itself says Jakób Rothwand. I'm just making a note of it to show that the spellings weren't even truly separate, even though some changes also made a difference in pronunciation. Not enough to make people care though, apparently.

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[1] Examples of usage:
https://pamiectreblinki.pl/ksiega-imion/baza-osob/?fwp_imie_standard=kejla
https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/miejscowosci/d/1130-dzisna/115-pamiec-w-kamieniu/12144-cmentarz-zydowski-w-dzisnie-wul-czapajewa/138800
https://pamiectreblinki.pl/ksiega-imion/baza-osob/?fwp_imie_standard=kajla
http://paszportyzycia.pl/lista/openhajm-nee-horowicz-kejla-gita/
https://memorial-archives.international/pl/entities/show/6055babc35e98c52bc406803
https://new.getto.pl/pl/Osoby/T/Trau-Kajla-Nieznane2
https://www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/person_view.php?PersonId=4584903
https://teatrnn.pl/wydarzenia/wydarzenie/obligenharc-kajla-miejsce-zamieszkania-lublin-ul-grodzka-23/
https://polska1926.pl/podpisy/852412
http://jewishcemeterylubaczow2015.blogspot.com/2016/03/
https://sztetl.org.pl/de/file/68391
https://jbc.bj.uj.edu.pl/Content/809655/NDIGCZAS047886_1929_004.pdf p.5
https://pamiectreblinki.pl/people_db/p133454/
https://pamiectreblinki.pl/people_db/p33521/ - this woman's name is written down in three versions including Kala

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https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=pol&w=09pk&rid=A&exac=&search_lastname=Hecke&search_lastname2=&from_date=&to_date=
- this is an interesting one, the person transcribing the database wrote down "Kejła Kejla?" but viewing the scan for myself (https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/skan/-/skan/fc12b720bcdcb51cfa63b2b73f2c0bc52f53f4d87c9b0776c4b584e969ab24db) I clearly see "Keiła" with a short "i". I suppose maybe the person inputting it into the database was familiar with the more common versions and automatically made a correction but it goes to show how many variations of one name there could be

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[2] https://rcin.org.pl/dlibra/show-content/publication/edition/13562?id=13562 p.77

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[3] https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/miejscowosci/s/523-skierniewice/115-pamiec-w-kamieniu/32057-cmentarz-zydowski-w-skierniewicach-ul-graniczna-14/103759

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[4] https://pl.wiktionary.org/wiki/כּלי

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[5] https://repozytorium.uwb.edu.pl/jspui/bitstream/11320/7956/1/Zofia%20Abramowicz_Antroponimia_Żydów%20białostockich.pdf p.102

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[6] https://znachenieimeny.ru/imena/kaleriya/

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https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/109883

This message was edited 1/24/2023, 5:11 AM