Re: Keile/Kayla/etc - Yiddish?
in reply to a message by ChanaRose
Keile was in the 1938 Nazi list of prescribed given names for Jews, so it was existent at that time as an Eastern Yiddish name. It does not have the most pleasant associations to German speakers and this was probably also intended: der Keil is meaning "wedge" in German language, and die Keile is a colloquial term for "a thrashing, a beating", one could also compare Keule "club, batton, stick". I have searched for names meaning "club, batton, stick" and it is a rare meaning in given names, and no Hebrew names with that meaning turned up.