Extremely common among Gujarati, who represent a very large portion of Indians living abroad ( long merchant and business tradition ) Just as Singh is the most common Sikh surname. I think Patel originally was a caste designation. In any case, Gujarati have become very well established in the hotel and motel business in the states. Since the name Patel is so common among them it is easy to think it is like "Hilton" in being a family business ( now all we need is a celebutant name Delhi Patel ... )

>Is Patel a common name? We have a fellow here who was indicted on charges of murdering his ex-wife. He was initially interviewed when her son reported her missing and later apprehended.
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>http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/2423912/
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>>>>But that's just me. I love to study history and languages and travelling gives me an excuse to do it.
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>>>Wow!
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>>>>I'm glad started travelling young the way I did and have been able to continue doing so ( have to admit in India I had trouble with *not* being a vegan <g> but it was certainly worth it on so many other levels and I am glad English *is* a 'local' language as I'm afraid I had no gift for Hindi. )
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>>>Hindi and other languages (incl. my mother tongue Gujarati) are based more on pronunciations than just plain simple alphabets. I myself have problems to write the correct spelling, for eg. a long pronounced E and a short pronounced one, I write them all the same one way or the other, maybe I need to have a hearing aid to help me distinguish the sounds :)
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>>>Next time you are in India you are welcome to call on me and if distance permitting maybe we could meet.
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>>I hope someday that might be possible. It is kind of you to suggest it.
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>>I have not been to Gujarat though of course most of the people from India I have met here and in Europe are Gujarati. ( there was an interesting piece in a local newspaper here last year about a legal dispute between three hotel owners all named Patel and the reporter had a great deal of difficulty keeping it straight and remembering who was and who was not related <s> )
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>>I know something of what you mean about pronunciation. Thai and Lao, like Chinese, are tonal languages, and it is very difficult for an English speaker to hear, let alone reproduce, some of the tones that are essential to the meaning of a word. We are very used to using inflection to change the meaning of a sentence but if we try to do that in a tonal language we actually change the meaning of the words, making a complete mess of it. <g>