This is a German surname of early medieval origins. Recorded in a variety of spellings including Kahler, Kohler, Kohlert and Kohlerman, it was originally either an occupational name for a charcoal maker, and later a collier or more likely an owner of coal mines, or it was a locational surname of landowning origins, from a place called Koler. Curiously the word as kohl or kohle was used to describes a cabbage grower, whilst the topgraphical surnames Kohlheim and Kohlhof can mean either cabbage hamlet or house or coal hamlet or house. Occupational surnames, although amongst the first to be created, only became hereditary if a son continued in the same occupation as the father. In this case we have the very early recording of Walther filius Koler of Tiermendingen, Germany, in 1234, whilst Verhaltnis von Koler of Koler is recorded in 1394. Other early recordings include Ruprecht Kaler of Freiburg in the charters of that city for the year 1464. A coat of arms was granted to Edle von Kahler of Bohemia in circa 1680. This has the blazon of per fess, gules and or, a dragon counterchanged, whilst that of Kohler of Bavaria has the blazon of argent, three spear heads in pale, gules.

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