The surname, TEITELBAUM, was used by Jews living primarily in North-eastern Europe prior to World War 2.  Variations of the spelling depended on the actual country of residence and on actual variations of pronunciation.  In Yiddish the word literally means "date tree".  In German one would say "Dattel" for date, and `Baum`for tree; and so we see the version DATELBAUM in those portions of e.g. Poland belonging to Prussia or Austrian Galicia.  DEUTELBAUM and DEITELBAUM are also variations appearing in those lands.  In Poland proper it was usually spelled TAJTELBAUM and pronounced TEITELBAUM.  Those who emigrated to English-speaking lands often changed the spelling to more phonetically recognizable forms, e.g. TITELBAUM or TITLEBAUM, or shortened the name to TITEL or TITLE. 

Since the family name was primarily used in those portions of Europe where palm trees are not cultivated, it is hard to imagine how the name originated.  The Jewish festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles) is celebrated in part by the waving of palm fronds during synagogue services. The need for these branches was fulfilled by distributors who imported them from Mediterranean lands; and such occupations might very well have given rise to that surname.  Another commonly accepted source of the name applies to the progenitors of Chassidic families.  In particular, Moshe TEITELBAUM (1759 - 1841), otherwise known by the title of his major work, "Yismach Moshe" (originally from Przemysl in Galicia), changed his surname from SCHIFF.  There are at least three different explanations for the change: a) under pressure to evade an anti-Chassidic atmosphere in Galicia prior to his emigration to Hungary; b) to honour a German-Jewish industrialist who patronized him and other Jews living in his part of Hungary); and c) because he or his children liked the name's reference to saintliness. (In Psalm 92 the Hebrew phrase, "Tzaddik katamar yifrach", is translated as "The righteous man shall flourish like the palm tree".) In Chassidic culture the word, Tzaddik is also used to designate the leader of the group; and so the name is a blessing that the leader's progeny, fame and reputation may spread and flourish. Indeed Rabbi Moshe's sons established Chassidic dynasties all over Hungary and Slovakia as well as in Galicia.  The same logic applies to any Chassidic family whether related to the Hungarian Teitelbaums or not. In any case, there were many Polish - Galitzian TEITELBAUM families living contemporaneously with the Hungarian ones; and they are not necessarily related to each other.        "           .