Ketill

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Boy · Old Norse

Ketill

Say it: KEH-til

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Meaning

From Old Norse ketill 'kettle, cauldron', possibly in the sense 'helmet'.

Likelythe main view, with some doubt.

Very common in the Viking age; its later forms Kjell and Ketil were popular in 20th-century Sweden and Norway.

Its wave through time

No birth counts are recorded for this name in the records loaded here: it has been given to fewer than five babies a year, or not at all, since records began.

Through the ages

  1. The Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age700 to 1100
  2. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450

Used by

Old NorseIcelandicNorwegianSwedish

The family of the name

Other spellings: Ketil

SwedishKjell
NorwegianKetil
EnglishKettle

Famous bearers

  • Ketill Flatnose, Norse ruler in the Hebrides

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Viking Age runestone inscriptions
  • The Icelandic sagas and other Old Norse literature

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.