Origins

Meanings of the Weinel Name

There are two schools of thought as to how the name Weinel was derived. These are:
Patronymic
Patronymic surnames are those names that derive from the first or given name of the father of the initial bearer. Weinel is believed to be the Bavarian-Austrian pet form of the German personal name Wino, which in its turn came from the High German wini or the Middle German wine which are interpreted to mean friend.
An extract of the Die deutschen Familiennamen - Geschichtlich, geographisch, sprachlich by Albert Heintze and P. Cascorbi, Halle a.S. 1908, states:
Weinel - short names, consisting of two parts, like Winibald, Winfried, Winiprecht, Winimar, Winirich. Therefrom the diminutive Winilo has given the name Weinel, in Austria Weindl.
Wini = friend, Winfried = friend of peace.
Pet or Personal Name
In this case Weinel is considered to be the short form or pet form of the popular Germanic personal name Winand (Wignaud) and may also be related to Weinand and Weinhold as well as Winrich and Winmar.

Variations in the spelling of the name are:

Weinel from the Hessen-French border regions.
Weindl from the Bavarian (Bayern)-Austrian border regions as well as parts of Austria. I.e. Salzburg. Also Weindel and Wein'hl a deformed form of Weindel
Weinle from the Schwaben Jura (Schwäbische Alb) parts of southern Germany.
Weinelt from the old Czechoslovakia as a variation using the secondary "t" common in some names.

For further information on the origin of German names please refer to the publication:
Deutches Namenlexikon, Familien-und Vornamen nach Ursprung und Sinn erklärt by Hans Bahlow, 1967, 1980

Weinels of the Büdinger Wald have also been mentioned as Weinleins in the 17th century. Also the spelling Weinell is known to originally to come from a family of Hugenotts.