Axel

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Boy · Hebrew, through Danish

Axel

Say it: AHK-sel

Try it with your surname

Meaning

A medieval Danish form of Absalom, from Hebrew 'my father is peace'.

Likelythe main view, with some doubt.

Developed from Absalon in medieval Denmark and widely popular across Scandinavia today.

Its wave through time

Rising now

In the United States

012318801900192019401960198020002020Peak 2020per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 50,701 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 2020, about 1 in 369 boys
  • 4,636 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
  2. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  3. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

DanishSwedishNorwegianFinnish

The family of the name

Other spellings: Aksel

FinnishAkseli
EnglishAbsalom

Famous bearers

  • Absalon, 12th-century Danish archbishop and founder of Copenhagen
  • Axel Oxenstierna, Swedish statesman

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Royal and noble genealogies
  • Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
  • National birth statistics of European countries source
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.