Patel (Gujarati ) is an Indian title meaning "farmer" or "village head."The surname is the second most common surname in India, following Singh. The Patel surname is found in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.[citation needed]
Ethnicity
The surname Patel is a title, therefore it does not reflect any particular ancestry. It is used by many groups.
Some are Jats. There are also Gujjar or Khawaja Patels. Migrant Jats arrived from Central and North India. They settled mainly in the districts of Ahmedabad, Kheda, Gandhi Nagar, Banas Kantha, Sabar Kantha, Mehsana, and Kutch.
Kurmi Kshatriyas with the surname are found in Surat, Gujarat.
A significant Rajput population lives mostly in and around the former Princely State of Baroda.
The surname is also found among Parsis, mainly from the Kutch, and Mumbai.
The rest, and most, with the surnames are native Gujaratis.
In Maharashtra Patel has been modified to Patil.
Distribution of the name "Patel"
Patel is the most common non-Anglo-Celtic surname in Great Britain. According to the UCL surname profiler, Patel is the 40th most frequent surname for Britons and the only non Anglo name in the top 100 British surnames. This surname has a frequency of 2161 per million British citizens (0.21%).
According to The UCL surname profiler, the name Patel is rarer in other Anglophone countries . In New Zealand there are 1160 Patels per million inhabitants, the rate for Australia is 82 per million, the rate for Canada is 542 per million and the rate for the USA is 441 per million. Contrastingly the name Patel is very common in Fiji mainly those who are of Indian decent. They form a large part of the Gujarati community in Fiji and have been there for more than six generations.
Patel-owned motels
It is estimated that as many as 60% of mid-sized motels and hotels in the US are owned by Indians, of that one-third have the surname Patel.