Patel

Patel is a surname/title representing a caste of village leaders. In the state of Gujarat, from the middle of the 1500s through the 1900s, the Patel of a village would be a member of the village committee. Patel is now also used as a surname among communities like Patidar, Leuva Patel (or Leva Patel), Kadva Patel, Matiya Patidar or Matiya Patel, Gujjar Patel.

The term patel derives from the word Patidar, literally "one who holds pieces of land called patis", implying a higher economic status than that of the landless. Consequently, the name "Patel" originally referred to one who was tasked with taking care of or farming such a piece of land, or who was the headman of the community.

The name Patel is found primarily in the Indian state of Gujarat, as well as the states of Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and in some eastern part of Madhya Pradesh; and metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Kanpur, Banda and Delhi.

The surname is also prevalent in some English-speaking countries due to migration from India. Within the United Kingdom, it is the twenty-fourth most common surname nationally, and the third most common in the Greater London region. In the US, the surname "Patel" ranks 174 among the top 500 list of most common last names, as of the 2000 US Census. In the Canadian city of Toronto, "Patel" is the sixth most common surname.

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