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Boy · Hebrew, through Danish
Axel
Say it: AHK-sel
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
- 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
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Aksel
| Finnish | Akseli |
|---|---|
| English | Absalom |
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.