- derived from Gaelic caol 'narrow', kyle denotes a narrow strait of water. Well-known examples include Kyle of Lochalsh, Kyle of Sutherland and the Kyles of Bute. The word has been recorded in Scots sources since the sixteenth century, one of the first being Donald Munro's Western Isles of Scotland and genealogies of the clans (1549):
Ane ile... with ane richt dangerous kyle & stream.